The Benefits of Prebiotics and Probiotics and The Truth About Wine

Hey, everybody. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. Now, we got some great questions today. In today's show, we're going to talk about prebiotics and probiotics and wine. Some of your favorite, I'm sure. So let's look at the first question, which is a video submission. And this is from Scott.

Hi, Dr. Hyman, it's Scott. My question concerns probiotics and prebiotics. Been following your 10 DD program for a while now, but I'm still concerned about what I should be taking and why I should be taking them, and how to best align my gut for being healthy again. Could you please comment on that as a background? I am type 2 diabetic. I am losing weight but still somewhat overweight. And I really like to see my gut helping me as much as possible in this journey. Thank you.

Okay, Scott, great question. What are the best prebiotics and probiotics? Well, just for those who don't know, prebiotics are fertilizers for the probiotics, which are the good bugs in your gut. In order to be healthy, you have to have a healthy gut. In fact, most people don't realize that there's a revolution in our understanding of the gut and that actually it's the biggest area of research because we now know that when your gut's not right, you can get cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, you can get Alzheimer's, you can get autism, you can get add. I mean, it's on and on and on. So we now know that the gut flora, the bacteria in there are linked to so many different things. They have, for example, so many different metabolites that are produced. I mean, think about it. You have about 20,000 genes. Your gut bacteria have about 2 million genes altogether and they're producing metabolites that's affecting everything. So our guts are damaged by our gut unfriendly lifestyle. First of all, one third of people are born by C section, which is a bad idea. Two, our mothers have unhealthy guts and that affects us. Three, we are often taking antibiotics when we're babies or throughout our life which damage the gut flora. We are taking drugs which are gut busting drugs, antibiotics, steroids, hormones, acid blockers, which are one of the worst and, and many, many other drugs that are like Aspirin and Advil. And all those drugs are gut busting drugs that damage the function and health of our gut and our gut flora. So it's really important to have a healthy gut and not have a leaky gut. Now, while it's important to know what pre and probiotics to take, it's equally as important as how do you fix your gut as a holistic strategy. And that's by taking out the foods that are not friendly to your gut. Sugar, processed foods, all the starches we're eating, the lack of fiber. I mean, all these things matter, all the chemicals. In fact, most people don't realize we're eating. All these emulsifiers and additives like artificial sweeteners damage your gut. And so do all the emulsifiers that we use in all these things that are healthy, like carrageenan, which is used in a lot of, like soy milk or almond milk, or all these things you think are healthy, they're actually not so healthy. So it's really important to eat the right diet to get off the gut busting drugs and then take the right pre and probiotics. So probiotics are these healthy bacteria. And there's a lot of brands. There's Lactobacillus, there's Bifidobacter. There's all kinds of bugs that you have in there, different kinds of Lactobacillus, and you should take a variety. You might switch around. And I like different products. I think VSL3 is a great product. There's Therabiotic, complete by Clair, which is a bigger strain. And these contain a lot of bacteria, and you need to sort of see which one works for you. In the future, we're gonna be learning exactly how to figure out what bugs to do. We're gonna get your poop test. We're gonna actually be able to tell exactly what to give you. So it's really important. You also need to start slowly and build up. And if you have a lot of bad bugs in your gut, you're gonna end up with problems. So you have to get rid of the bad bugs. Then you can add the good bugs. And the prebiotics are soluble fiber. They help feed the good bugs, like fertilizer. So there's a lot of good ones like onions and garlic and resistant starch, sweet potatoes, dandelion greens, jicama, all these are great pre and probiotics. Acacia fiber is also great, and they really help as well. So thank you so much, Scott, for this question. It's so much bigger than just, you know, taking prebiotics. It's really, how do you tend to your inner garden? So thank you, Scott. All right, next question is from Barbie, and it's a tweet. All right, Barbie, what do you Got to say for yourself, well, is having a glass or two of wine every night damaging? Well, that's a good question. I've written a lot about the potential benefits of wine in a blog. It's called Will Drinking Red Wine Really Help Me Live Longer? Now, here's the deal. Drinking alcohol is kind of like a U shaped curve. A little bit is good, a little more is bad. And we have to be very careful about it. And in fact, for women, it's. It may be worse. One glass of wine a night will increase your risk of breast cancer by 40%. Why? Because it damages your liver and it prevents your estrogen from getting detoxified and actually stimulates the reabsorption of the estrogens from your gut once they're detoxified. And then you end up with all these problems with cancer. So I really encourage people to try to limit their risk by actually reducing alcohol if they're at risk for cancer. Also, it's not great for your brain. You know, it's a brain toxin. There may be some benefits to maybe a glass of wine three times a week or a glass of alcohol may not matter. If it's wine. There, there's, there's alcohol obviously from wine. That's 5 ounces is a serving, 1 to 2 ounces is a serving of hard alcohol, and beer is like 10 ounces or 12 ounces. So that's really what is a drink. Now I would really think of it like a recreational treat. This is not an everyday substance. It's something for fun. It's occasional, it shouldn't be binging. And be careful with it because it can cause problems. Aside from just the risk for alcoholism if you have a family risk. So I really, I want you to be careful about that. But a little bit alcohol can be a fine part of a healthy life. All right, that's all the time we have today for questions. If you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. You can even call them on the phone or talk to in person. Imagine that. And if you have any questions, you can, you can tweet them or send them to me at Dr. Hyman.com you can put in your video submissions as well. And maybe next week I'll make a house call to you. So thanks for watching.