An Integrative Approach to Gut Health with Dr. Marvin Singh

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It is literally impossible to say, okay, everybody, we figured out the diet. If everybody eats these vegetables or these meats or these combinations of foods, you'll have the perfect microbiome that is never, ever going to happen.

Welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show with celebrity nutrition expert, fitness hall of famer, and four time New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin. JJ is a warrior mom whose knowledge and expertise have helped change hundreds of thousands of lives. With over 3.5 million podcast downloads and appearances on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Larry King Live.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than any ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. All right, if you have suffered from heartburn, bloating, you're going, why the heck should I be eating? Should I go low fodmap? Should I do elimination? I've got an amazing guest today and we are going to be talking about how to optimize your gut health, wellness and longevity. And I literally have someone writing the textbook on integrative gastroenterology. Like, how cool is that? Let me talk to you about my new friend, Dr. Marvin Singh. So Marvin practices as an integrative gastroenterologist in San Diego. Turns out he literally lived down the street from me. I just moved to Tampa. As many of you know, he's a diplomat of the American Board of Integrative Medicine board, certified internist and gastroenterologist and trained by Dr. Andrew Weil. And he is also a voluntary assistant clinical professor at UCSD and prior to that he was an assistant professor at UCLA, Go Bruins. R.A. my alma mater and an assistant professor at John Hopkins. He is the co editor of the Textbook of Integrative Gastroenterology, 2nd Edition and he is also a distinguished speaker with the American Academy of anti Aging Medicine, a 4M and a bunch of other cool places. So I was like going, oh my gosh, literally getting the guy who's writing the textbook on this. It is super cool and I am very excited to share him with you. Now before I do that though, I also want to do a shout out to Trevor Hotlanta too. She left a five star review on Apple podcast saying super informative show. I love the show. Great topics, easy to listen to and just put plain good content. Of course, today will be no different. And again, I'm super excited to share Dr. Marvin Singh with you. But before I do, I want to share one other cool thing with you.

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Doctor Marvin Singh, welcome to the show. Super excited to have you with me.

Thanks for having me.

All Right now I was excited because you reached out and I'm like, this guy is a badass. I'm saying it. I never say any swear words, but I couldn't think of a better thing. I'm like, rockstar badass. He is. And I love anything to do with, with GI stuff. So I was like, yes, where have you been hiding? So I'd love to know, since I don't really know much about you besides all of your massive credentials which everyone now is filled in on. So how did you get into all this?

Well, you know, it's funny because I was trained very conventionally like any other doctor, Regular medical school, residency, fellowship. And as I kind of went through my career early on, I kind of felt like something was missing, you know, like we were helping a lot of people and people are in life threatening situations, we can save their life. But there was kind of like a disconnect. It was felt like, you know, people just kept coming and going, but we weren't really helping them. Getting at the kind of root cause of where some of their problems are coming from. And then I discovered integrative medicine. It was actually my wife. So thanks to my wife, I was introduced to a textbook called Integrative Gastroenterology. And it's funny because I'm actually now the going to be one of the, one of the editors of the second edition of the book that actually introduced me to the whole field in the first place. And I was fat. Oh, isn't that cool? Yeah, it's pretty cool. And I became very interested. I was like, you know, this is some very interesting data. They're presenting evidence based medicine. And you know, this, this kind of stuff could help people. And then I looked into where I could get some more education on this and I enrolled in Andrew Weil's fellowship in Integrated Medicine at the University of Arizona. And from that moment forward, my whole life changed. I mean, it was like I had a huge breath of fresh air kind of blown into my body. I myself personally started using some of these lifestyle modifications and in three months, I lost £40.

Wow.

Yeah. And so, you know, like when something like that happens, it's like you all of a sudden you're even more of a believer because you not only are you reading it, you're seeing the science, but you apply to your own life and you see that it actually does work. So it's just kind of like, you know, just kind of ignited a wildfire inside of me.

Now what about your other doctor friends around you? Did they think you're crazy. Did you like get them, did you get them switched over? Like what happened over there?

Well, that, you know, there are people that believe that, you know, these things are real and work and then there are always your, you know, skeptical people. And I was working in, you know, one of my hospitals, I won't name the hospital, but you know, one of the senior guys in the hospital says, hey, you know, you got to kind of explain to us why you're going to be allowed to do this training in integrative medicine and talk to patients about it. And I was just kind of like.

What are you, wow.

What are you talking about? Everybody should be doing this, you know. And so, you know, I, I prepared, you know, a nice response letter with attached, like articles, peer reviewed articles and abstracts. And I sent this whole package and zero response. They didn't bother me at all after that.

Wow.

Wow.

But they also, I mean, I would have hoped that some of them get on the bus because if you think of like, first of all, what an exciting time to be a gastroenterologist, like the coolest stuff coming out about gut microbiome. I mean, it is like such a great time, but it's also when you look at that field, like so many people come in with symptoms of, of different GI issues and medications are given and they have horrible side effects and they don't ever like, it is the absolute of any of the areas. Boy, this is certainly one that you need to address in this way. So, yeah, you know, and it's awesome.

Because there's so much stuff about the gut microbiome affecting like any kind of medical condition. So it's, it's like kind of bringing it back to the real reason why, you know, we become doctors in the first place. And you know, I think in modern times we kind of get lost in that. Like, I'm a surgeon, I only cut people open. I'm a, I'm a neurologist, I only deal with the brain. But it. What's the coolest part about being a gastroenterologist is I, I can take care of the whole body because the microbiome is associated with inflammatory diseases, cancers, brain health, heart health, every, everything really.

So someone walking into your office, can you like, what's your first approach with them?

And can you.

Do, you know, this all naturally?

We can do our best. You know, it really depends on what situation the person is in. So, you know, sometimes people come to me and they have metastatic pancreatic cancer actually, you know, just pretty recently. And it's kind of hard to take a natural approach in that situation because the cat's already out of the bag and the trigger's been pulled on the cancer and it's already spread through the whole body. But that doesn't mean that there is no hope for anything because you can still modify lifestyle parameters and try to optimize your situation so that you feel better, have more energy, maybe minimize some side effects or, you know, in a better place mentally. And, and those things are very important as well as far as your quality of life and survival and things like that, because the, the whole body is very intricately tied to each other. I would never pretend to be able to reverse a, you know, a metastatic end stage process, for example, but there's a lot of cases outside of that where we can certainly take a natural approach. And I tell people, you know, what's funny is in practices we often have pharmaceutical reps come, you know, visit the office and bring samples. And we need all that because it's good to give people samples of stuff. But they always ask me, are you using our drug? You know, and I kind of, it's like a kind of standard line. I chuckle and I say, not, not really, because I don't, I don't prescribe much really, unless I have to. Yeah, I, I have, you know, my, you know, little toolbox of herbs and supplements and things that I can use instead. And I. It does very well. I mean, heartburn, sibo.

Let's start like breaking down some of them because again, heartburn like this is one that just kills me because you get. People have been on these chronic acid blockers, not realizing what that can do to you in terms of even things like bone density. Right. So, yeah, let's, let's tackle heartburn because it's so common.

Yeah, heartburn, you know, is so common. And now we have these medicines called proton pump inhibitors or PPIs that are available over the counter. You don't even need a doctor's prescription for them anymore. And, you know, some might look at that as convenient and easy, but that's actually probably not a good thing because people just pop them like no tomorrow without thinking about it.

Yeah. What are some of the side effects?

Yeah, So, I mean, B12 deficiency, magnesium deficiency, osteoporosis, which means, you know, weakening of your bones. And one of the other important things to think about is imbalance of the gut microbiome. The microbiome is the trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms that live inside of our digestive tract. And they are really the ones that are responsible for, you know, modulating our whole health and how we interact with our environment and the rest of our body. And when you reduce the acid in your stomach significantly by taking these medications, what you're doing is kind of changing the, you know, protective mechanism in the stomach, which is acid for bacteria and other things that shouldn't be getting down downstream to get downstream. And that includes maybe bacteria on foods that you're eating. It could include, you know, bacteria in your mouth, from your teeth and your gums that get down into the microbiome, you know, in the lower intestine. And it's actually very fascinating because when we're looking at people's microbiome, we're seeing oral bacteria in the gut. And, you know, there's literature showing that this, these oral bacteria can actually predispose you to autoimmune disease. So, you know, everything is tied to each other. Yes. You know, taking that PPI might have helped you, you know, have an extra drink or eat some cake at a party, but you shouldn't be doing those things in the first place. And you added that on top of a ppi. So now it's kind of like you got a double triple whammy. You have oral bacteria kind of migrating down to your lower intestine. And that can chronically over time. Not. Not like you just take one pill. You're, you know, you're doomed. But, you know, chronically over time, this is what causes this thing we call dysbiosis, or an imbalance in the gut microbiome.

All right, so someone has this. What should they do?

So I often try to put them on more natural things like dgl. That's one of my most favorite herbs. It works very well. DGL stands for de glycyrcinated licorice. And I use that in addition to things like ginger or slippery elm. They, they. They generally, you know, most of the time, that's kind of good enough. One of the more important things also is to talk about, you know, lifestyle things, what's going on in your life, how much stress you're under, what kind of food you're eating. You know, what are your eating habits. Those things alone may actually be enough not to even need Harper medication, even herbs. You know, a lot of people eat before they go to bed, and, you know, they fill the stomach up, and then they lie down and they have heartburn at night and they can't go to sleep.

Hopefully no one listening does that anymore because we have, like, one of the simplest things you can do. And I always say, Marvin, like, it would be perfect. What houses should have is a, like, the way to lock down your kitchen after dinner so that you just cannot, like, with an armed guard, alarm system, the whole bit, like security cameras, you cannot get yourself in there because shutting it down three to four hours before bed, one of these single. And not going to bed later either. They all know that.

Yeah.

You know, so.

Yeah. You know, it's funny, we talk about all these things individually for certain problems or conditions like heartburn, but these same themes keep coming up over and over again for everything. We know that when you're not sleeping right, your microbiome gets off because changes in circadian rhythms can alter your microbiome. We know that intermittent fasting is good for our metabolic health and can help reduce inflammation and help with weight loss and your metabolism and blood sugar levels. And these are the same kind of themes we're talking about here for heartburn. You know, don't eat before you go to bed. We shouldn't be doing that anyways because we don't want to fill the tank before we lie down. Otherwise it's going to.

I just read the craziest thing and I thought, am I like, living in an alternate universe? They did a blog and they asked top nutritionists respond to what should you have as your snack before bed? And I'm like, I can't believe this. This is, you know, are you kidding me? You know, And I'm like. And I'm reading these recommendations of snacks before bed and. And someone's like, yeah, I. I have some. It was like some yogurt and fruit before bed. So I have lots of energy. And I'm like, what? You know, lots of energy for what you're sleeping, like, you're supposed to be feeling, you know, craziness that's out there still, that we should have, like, this evening snack. So we've.

We.

But it is interesting. I would put people on the virgin diet. And, you know, we were doing it when I initially started really bringing it out to the world, was being used for weight loss, you know, which was like this novel thing that elimination diet could help with weight loss. But the other symptom, the side effect, I always love that when you use diet and supplements, you tend to have side benefits. But the side benefit was all of a sudden I was hearing, oh, I don't have heartburn anymore. So it is crazy that when you can look at things like stress and when you eat and what you're eating you can start to shift these things. And let's, like you mentioned sibo, so let's, let's dive into that one too. What are you seeing with that and how are you working through that?

That's a big topic. And I would say majority of my practice is now a lot of patients who have the same kind of symptoms. And I think sibo is kind of like an epidemic problem.

Why do you think so?

Based on at least my clinical experience, I think, you know, it has to do a lot with food choices and lifestyle choices that we make, you know, on a day to day basis, particularly in this country, you know, where fast food and, you know, quick, quick, easy answers or alternatives are, you know, preferable because everybody's on the go. I think, you know, alcohol definitely plays a role. I think stress is a huge thing and lack of sleep there. These are the same themes coming back again. And, and why, why that affects sibo is. You think about what sibo actually is. Sibo means small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And we have bacteria in our small bowel. We have bacteria throughout our whole GI tract. Not as much as in the colon, but, you know, they are there. And so what. What are some things that could predispose you to have more bacteria in your small bowel than you would ordinarily expect? You know, are things like slower motility, meaning the small bowel doesn't squeeze as well as it should, and things remain stagnant in the small bowel and then they can overgrow, percolate with more bacteria growth. And as those bacteria are growing in higher populations, they tend to cause more of this bloating and gas discomfort because they're fermenting the foods that are coming down from the stomach that you're eating. And I always remind people that your human cells aren't making the gas, the bacteria are making the gas. Human cells don't make gas. So it's things like stress and food choices that actually can slow down the motility of the gut. So it's all kind of related to each other. If you're under a lot of stress, for example, the bowel's not going to squeeze as it should, because signals are going to your gut that there's some danger, there's something bad going on. So blood is going to shunt away from the digestive tract and go to other parts of your body, like your brain and your extremities, because your body is just preparing to do something, even if there's really nothing to do. Your body doesn't know all that. And so the, the gut slows down, and then what happens? Then you get this stasis of contents and bacterial overgrowth. And it's very common. You know, and a lot of things, you know, there's a lot of people take pain medications as well. You know, you take, you know, hurt your arm or your back, and you start taking opiate pain medications. And that also slows down the, the motility of the digestive tract.

So what does someone do about it?

So, you know, one of the first things to do is look at the diet. I mean, I've seen so many people that can actually get rid of their symptoms by, you know, eating like a low fodmap diet and looking at how they're, you know, managing their lifestyle and their stress. Sometimes it's a little bit harder than, you know, simply just doing lifestyle measures. In the conventional world, we usually recommend antibiotics, so depending on if there's a hydrogen excess or a methane excess or a hydrogen and methane excess. But in my practice, I often use herbs as an alternative. The downside is that the herbs are about a month long treatment versus antibiotics, which are two weeks. But, you know, the upside is that they're herbs. And herbs are kind of like antibiotics, too, but they're much more gentler on.

The system because they're more natural antibiotics, which I understand. Sometimes it's just, you know, nothing else is working. But then you're gonna have to come back afterwards and rebuild the whole.

Rebuild. Yeah, I think I, I still talk to people about rebuilding, whether it's antibiotics or herbs, but it's kind of like what kind of rebuild. It's like antibiotics are kind of like the atomic bomb just got dropped. So, you know, here you have a, you have a big repair to do afterwards, and that's okay because, you know, people shouldn't feel bad if that's their, you know, last alternative. And they had to do it to feel better. Because I've seen people who were very headstrong on wanting to do natural therapies, and they didn't work. And they ended up taking the antibiotic and, you know, they were real nervous about it. And we worked real hard at kind of getting the microbiome back to balance, and they, they're doing very well. But, you know, if we can try to use herbs, that's usually their preference. And people do very well, you know, with the particular combination. There's actually published literature on herbs versus antibiotics. In SIBO 2014 study that was published compared a couple of different herbal regimens against antibiotics. And found them to be equivalent. So.

Wow.

From my perspective, I see no reason, I find no reason whatsoever not to use herbs if as long as there's no contraindication, which are the top herbs.

You'Re seeing that do the best.

So I use the regimen that was outlined in the study and they used a couple of different proprietary formulas from a couple different companies. The one that I find that's the most responsive is Candy Bactin AR and CandyBactin VR. So I use those sometimes in combination with allicillin, depending, you know, if there's methane. And sometimes we use other kind of herbs to support symptoms and digest it. Digestion like enzymes and things like that. But those are kind of like the core parts of the herbal treatment. It works very well.

Dive in kind of as a wrap up because I think the biggest question people always want to know is, well, what should I eat? And, and I think it goes past. And I'm excited about this because for years it was like, what? And I think it's what, what, when, how. There's so much more to it. It's not just what you're eating, but it's definitely when you're eating. As we already talked about, there's a big difference between eating something at noon versus eating something at midnight. In fact, I have one client, she's like been struggling, struggling, struggling. I go, well, you stay up too late at night, you eat it late at night, until you stop doing that, nothing's gonna move, babe. And she's like, ah, but I'd love to hear your take on what someone, especially in the view of like creating that great balanced microbiome, you know, reducing inflammation. What are your recommendations around diet?

So I guess my philosophy is a little unique compared to what a lot of other people say and think. You know, each one of us as human beings, our microbiomes are only 10 to 20% similar genetically by DNA. We're very, very similar to each other. But our microbiomes, they're 10 to 20% similar. So it is literally impossible to say, okay, everybody, we figured out the diet. If everybody eats these vegetables or these meats or these combinations of foods, you'll have the perfect microbiome that is never, ever going to happen. You know, and what kind of hits this, the nail on the head is a study that just came out, I think like a few weeks ago, less than a month ago, and they took people's, it was a small study, you know, they looked at 17 people, but. Or, you know, and they, they sequenced their microbiome every day during this study period. And what they found was that people ate the same exact foods. They had different changes to their microbiome. So, for example, like if I ate broccoli and you ate broccoli, we may know that broccoli has, you know, calcium or vitamin C and, you know, and these nutrients are good for us. You know, there are some things, some nutrients that we know universally are good for our whole health. But in my microbiome, broccoli might make five changes to five different to five bacteria. In your microbiome, broccoli might make two changes to another set of bacteria that aren't the same bacteria that changed in my microbiome. And maybe that's a good thing or maybe that's a bad thing. We don't even know. So what I try to tell people is to not get hung up on the, you know, the, the fad diets, the things that are, you know, sounding very popular is everybody's got a story. You know, you can have people on complete opposite spectrums that are talking about how this diet or that diet kind of reversed their autoimmune disease and made their skin look better and now they feel younger and healthier. The important thing is to try to understand what's going on in your body and what your genetic makeup is, what your microbiome is looking like, how imbalanced is it really, and try to figure out what way to eat that is. Best.

Diet.

This is what I love doing. This is what I do. So, you know, what I do is I'll, you know, I do, I use some of the most cutting edge tests and I look at, you know, what the microbiome composition is. I'll do genome testing, I'll look at the nutritional genetics or we'll look at whole genome, we'll look at. I'm starting to do epigenetic testing actually, which is actually a brand new, awesome test. We look at food sensitivities, we look at chemical exposures, we look at all kinds of things. And then I sit down and synthesize all that information and I literally create a blueprint for somebody. So like I'll, I'll take all that information and I'll basically make them like a user's guide to their body and then I guide them through the process. You know, it may not be perfect the first time, but we'll learn, we'll adjust and we'll move on. And then we'll recheck, retest and see how things go. I mean, to me, that is really, if you really want to optimize your health, your wellness, your longevity, your symptoms, you kind of really got to know about what's going on inside. Otherwise you're just kind of guessing. So a lot of people that say, you know, I had all these problems and I was a vegan and I became a vegan and now everything is gone. On the other end of the spectrum, you'll have the same people saying that about a carnivore diet. I had all these problems and I was a vegan and now I became a carnivore, which is complete opposite of that. And all my problems got reversed. What I feel philosophically, I guess, is there's, there's no studies on this yet is that what people are doing are they're kind of hacking their bodies in a way without using these kind of tests. They're learning from their experiences and perhaps shifting their metabolism and the way their body works in the direction that seems to work better for them. And these are extreme elimination diets, basically on both ends of the spectrum. And then you have people saying the same thing about stuff in between. So people pocket into different categories based on their experiences. But at the end of the day, you really, really don't know what's happening inside. You may feel that you lost some weight, but do you know if that weight loss is going to be sustainable or is that just, you know, you went keto for a couple of months and you lost £20 and you feel great, but how are you going to be in 20 years? You know, can you be keto for 20 years? Is that sustainable? So the only way to really know how you should eat and how you should live is to really understand what's going on inside of your body, because that's the only way that you can be flexible and sustainable. Human beings aren't, you know, stone rocks that, you know, it's going to be this way and it's going to look like this forever. Your environment changes, stressors change, you know, exposures change. There could be a fire in San Diego, knock on wood. Tomorrow, and all our microbiomes might change because we inhale the smoke. And maybe I was healthy being a vegan yesterday, but today I can't eat any vegetables. You know, things are different. Things change. The human body was meant to be flexible and adaptable. That's why we've made it so many centuries as a species. And so in order to really kind of know how you want to eat in the long run, I feel you have to kind of know what's going.

On inside so much sense. I love that. I mean that's kind of if, if I do write one more diet book, the, the diet book will be that we should use diets therapeutically to learn something about ourselves and to make some shifts and pull that information that's working into our everyday way we eat, which needs to be a different word than diet and that. Right?

Yeah. I don't like the word diet. The diet's just a word in English that we use because that's what people understand. But I call it a. I've been.

Trying to figure this one out, Marvin, if you figured out. But literally because I think that we use diet as this thing and I'm like, well, there's a very big difference between using something short term. Like let's say you did keto short term or you did, you know, you, you went plant based for a little while. You do these things short term. You go, huh, what's going on here? How is this working or not working for me? And then you p stuff into I we just need that other word for like how we eat that thing that I was like, I keep asking everywhere and every time I'm speaking I'm like, anyone got the word? And it's but haven't come up with it yet. So I'm going to throw that over to you and see if you can come up with it too. Now I know you have a great gift for everybody. It's your four week Gut Reset ebook. So super excited about that. And you're going to be able to get that@jj virgin.com Dr. Marvin and tell me a little bit about what they're going to get in there.

So that's kind of like a good starter guide or a primer to kind of understand some of the themes of eating that we were just talking about. I talk about how we can use certain components of eating or nutrition, such as a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting, to kind of, kind of get the ball rolling and give a little bit of a breakdown as far as, you know, what are the things in your life, how to get your pantry ready, you know, how to what kind of herbs and supplements might be supportive, what kind of, you know, lifestyle measures might kind of get you through the beginning part. Because no matter if you're on a quote unquote diet or an eating lifestyle, there is a beginning to it if you're not doing anything right now. And that beginning can be more of the therapeutic style of eating. But ultimately that's not going to be what you do for, you know, 100 years. Because we're not. We want to make sure that we are eating and allowing ourselves to eat and live in a flexible and sustainable way. Because otherwise, you know, it's just not going to work. You'll lose the weight and you'll gain it right back. You want to be able to lose the weight and keep it off and know what to do if you kind of get off track. Because everybody's going to get off track. You want to go on vacation to Hawaii and have a good time and not be so uptight about stuff. But that's okay. Live your life. Because that's part of living long too is enjoying your time with family and friends and having a good time. That's good for your microbiome too. We actually have studies on that. And so, you know, so you know, when you come back, get back on track. You know, we want to be flexible and sustainable. We don't want to beat ourselves up over making a mistake or having a cupcake on our birthday. You know, you got to live your life. But that just don't eat cupcakes every.

Day when you only eat cupcakes on your birthday. Or we just had a, we had a big Palm Springs getaway with a bunch of women and we had Rose. I was like going, here we are, we're getting IVs in a movie theater, watching chick flicks, having rose all day, gluten free cupcakes. And I was like, you know what? It's like, it was kind of, it was fun for a little while and then you're like, give me some broccoli. So, you know, that's the other good news is that like, you know, we don't even really want that stuff. So, you know, I love everything you've said. This is fantastic information. It's. And it's doable and I love that you've ended with that, hey, you know, you're going to go on vacation or have your birthday and it's fine. It's, that's not what's going to determine your long term health. It's what you do on the, you know, consistent basis.

It's the long game. We're playing the long game here. You know, you know, you may have a wedding to go to and you may need to lose 10 pounds to fit in that dress. And that's okay. But, but remember, there's a long game because you're living your life. You're not living that. The 30 days you're eating, that's why.

When I hear diets don't work, I go, yes, they do. We're just using them wrong. You're using, you know, use something short term and see what works in it for you. And none of it may work. You know, some of these things, like, you know, super plant based raw foods diet would not work for me. I can tell you. I would be like, you know, I would clear the room. So. All right, enough said on that. So again, I want to remind everybody, jjvirgin.com forward/dr. Marvin, you'll be able to grab that eBook, the Four Week Gut Reset, so you'll know right where to get started. And Marvin, thank you so much. I'm so glad you hunted me down. You are just a treasure.

I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

I'm going to take my top action step from today and give you a little challenge. So stay with me. All right, so this is where I give you my top takeaways and throw down a challenge. And you can imagine I was kind of giddy as I was interviewing Marvin and he was saying all of this stuff about how, you know, we really have to dial this in and personalize it for the person because that is everything I'm about is, is really you being your own personal health detective and figuring out what works for you and what doesn't. And he talked about a lot of great guidance with different tests, everything from gut microbiome tests to genetic tests. And it is exciting. And food elimination and of course, food sensitivity tests. It's exciting. How much more is coming out now and how much more we know. But you know, you go back to still the single most powerful thing is how you feel and really connecting to the dots between what you're eating or, you know, what's going on in your life and how you're feeling. So my big challenge to you, and you've heard me do this before, and I'm doing it again, is food Journal. Now, why do I keep hammering, hammering on about food journals? First of all, they are so powerful for helping you make shifts in your life. So you can never beat this. Just the recording. What you measure and monitor, you can improve setting those specific goals. But the reason I really love food journals here is it allows you to look back and go, all right, I was eating this and I feel this way. So it's a really useful tool to help you connect the dots between what you're eating and how you feel. Super important. I also want to remind you to grab Dr. Marvin Singh's ebook the Four Week Gut Reset and you can get that@jjvirgin.com Dr. Marvin Great show notes there as well.

And.

Subscribe if you haven't done it yet because I don't want you to miss any of this goodness. And now that we're moving into season two, we've got interviews, we've got solo episodes, we've got Friday Q and A. So you do not want to miss out. So make sure you subscribe while you're over there. If you have not given a review yet, give a review. Let me know what you think. Let me know if there's something you want to hear about. Totally open. This show is our show, right? And when I say our show, I mean yours and mine and everybody out there so you can share as well. Takes a Takes a village to create and produce a podcast. I'm sitting over here in my studio, but there's a whole lot more that goes into it and we want to make sure that when we're taking the time that we're doing what you are looking for and providing the best information out there that you can put into immed practice in your life to uplevel your health. All right, take care. I'll see you next time.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body and mind. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next week.

Hello listeners, this is Ann Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the most moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website, whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.