The Happy Gut with Dr. Vincent Pedre, MD

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I give you the latest cutting edge intel to help you look, feel and think better. Now, today's show is all about the gut. My favorite topic if you've been around at all. You know how much I love talking about GI stuff. And I'm super fortunate today because I have an amazing doc to talk to you about this. And you're going to love how Dr. Vincent Pedre got into all of this because he's just got a great story and it is why he's so darn good at what he does. So let me tell you a little bit about him first before we get into the interview. And I will tell you that you are going to love his discussion on what you need to do about heartburn, why you should never take antacids. I'm super excited to share that with you. But first, a little bit about Dr. Vincent Pedre. He's a functional medicine doc. He's the director of Pedre Integrative Health. He's the founder of Dr. Pedre Wellness, and he believes, as do I, that the gut is the gateway towards excellent health. He's got a great book, the Happy the Cleansing Program, to help you lose weight, gain energy and eliminate pain that will help you resolve your gut related health issues. And we are going to have a super cool freebie giveaway for you today that will help you just launch into this right away. Also, to get more from him, be sure to go visit happygutlife.com and again, his book is the Happy Gut.

Alrighty.

I'm excited to share Dr. Vincent Pedre with you. All right, let's go do it. Dr. Vincent Pedre, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Thanks for having me, jj.

Well, it's one of my most favorite topics and one of my most favorite topics for all of our listeners too. And you are the best guy I know to be talking about it. So I want to dive in with you because I always think someone's a better practitioner, they're a better expert when they lived through it themselves. And I know you had some gut issues along the way. So why don't we dive in with how you got. How you got interested in the gut in the first place. What happened?

Well, I was always kind of centered on really connected to my gut. I had what I would have called a nervous stomach when I was a child that later became irritable bowel. And it was a result of the best intentions of both my parents and the pediatricians, but doing the wrong thing. I was on too many antibiotics probably more than two or three times a year during my teenage years. And I was eating all the types of foods that I became sensitive to, and they were poisoning me, like gluten and dairy, and they weakened my immune system. The doctors thought that I wasn't eating enough or that I needed a multivitamin. And they were always concerned about my immune system because I constantly got bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis. It seemed like there was something going wrong, but the issue was that my microbiome was destroyed and I was sensitive to all these foods that I was continuously eating. My. My breakfast was cereal with milk. And then after school, my mom would get me a milkshake. And then maybe after dinner, I was having ice cream.

Yikes.

So I was. I was poisoning myself. But as a result of that, I learned just by accident, when I went to medical school, I stopped having dairy. I stopped having cereal with milk. And dairy just didn't become a big thing in my diet. Just because I was too rushed. I couldn't sit down to have cereal in the morning. I had to just run out the door. And the first thing I noticed was that my sinuses were clear and that I wasn't getting sick as often. I wasn't picking up. I used to pick up anybody coughed on me or had a cold near me, and I would get it. And I just wasn't getting sick as much. And I started thinking, even though they don't give us any nutrition in medical school, I was thinking, I wonder if there's a connection between dairy and how sick I used to get. And that started my journey into really paying attention to nutrition and wondering, how could I finally figure out what's going on with my gut? And it wasn't until I did functional medicine, and that was probably like, 10 years later that I finally figured out that gluten was a big issue for me and took gluten out of my diet and then did an elimination diet and fixed my gut floor, my microbiome, took probiotics, and finally felt the best that I had felt in pretty much Since I was a child before all this started.

Wow. All those years, right?

All those years. And. But, you know, this is one thing I wanted to say to your listeners is that even though it sounds like I was suffering for all those years, but for a long time it wasn't like I was suffering because it became my normal. So I just thought that this is the way that you live. This is just the way my body is. And my body is different from other people. It's going to react this way if I eat certain foods. I didn't know if I went out to dinner, if it was going to sit well or if I was going to be running to the toilet. But I just thought, okay, that's just my makeup. That's my genetics. Until I learned about the gut microbiome and the issues with food and our food supply and fixed that and realized that all this time I was thinking that this was normal and it wasn't.

What are some of the other things? Because I love this topic as you know, but so many of these things that we're taught to think of as, oh, you're getting older or oh, yeah, no, you just get headaches. Like, I'm just thinking of just joint pain and fatigue, things that people wouldn't probably normally tie to their gut. I mean, what are some of the other symptoms that could be symptoms of having an unhappy gut? Because I know you talk about a happy gut that we would never probably connect the dots with.

So like you said, joint pain, swelling, water retention, mental fog, like just feeling that your brain is not clear. Especially if you get really mentally foggy after meals, like an hour or two after you eat and you feel like you want to go and take a nap. Headaches, like migraines. Migraines are connected to food sensitivities.

I have to interrupt you there. My son Bryce had, I called him pizza migraines for years. And I'm like, baby, every time you eat pizza you get a migraine. No, I don't, Mom. He finally stopped, but it was crazy to see it. I'm like, come on, it's so obvious. He just didn't want to make that connection, right?

My trigger. And I took a while. I also suffered from migraines. And my trigger is a raw red onion. I cannot eat raw red onions. It's a sure fire migraine for me. But other things. So I've had people write me who have done my program, the happy gut cleanse, that their asthma disappeared, that their first time, that their adult asthma isn't bothering them. Or that their allergies, their spring allergies. And people don't think of this, that allergies, asthma, these are allergic conditions. They're related to your gut. And the root of the issue is the gut. And I'm. I'm. I become the allergist, not best friend, because I fix the patient so they don't have to go for allergy shots anymore.

Yeah, but you're the patient's best friend.

I am the patient's best friend.

So someone walks in, I mean, and you hear from everybody that they just feel bloated, Right? So let's just give one to someone. Like someone's feeling bloated. What is really going on there?

Well, there's a few big things. So they might have an overgrowth of bacteria in their small intestine. So a lot of times when people feel bloated, it could be that they just developed too many bacteria. So maybe they're constipated. The small intestine is not doing its proper muscular contractions the way it's supposed to. They call it peristalsis, and they get something called sibo. So everybody's hearing this now. Sibo. It's like the diagnosis de jure. Everybody comes into my office looking for gut help and thinking, well, do I have sibo? That's one that's like last.

What was it? A decade ago, it was Candida. You know, now it's Sibo.

And now instead of calling it Candida, what we call it is sifo. So small intestinal fungal overgrowth, because it could be that it's not Candida, it could be Rototorula, it could be Diotrichum. So there's a whole bunch of different yeast that could grow in there. And the third part that a lot of people. And as we get older, so once you're hitting about 50 and even older than that, and sometimes younger than that, if you're under a lot of stress, your stomach is not going to produce enough acid. And the way you know this is, as soon as you eat, you feel like your stomach swells up. That's a clue that your stomach isn't producing enough acid. Your digestive strength is diminished. So, like people who avoid eating red meat because they say, oh, I can't eat red meat because it sits like a brick in my stomach. Well, maybe it's not the red meat. Maybe it's that you're just not producing enough acid so you can't break down the protein. You need the acid to break down protein into amino acids. So you can absorb them. So those would be the top three, I would say. But the one that a lot of people don't know about is this low acidity and everybody's taking antiacid medications. It's horrible.

I love that you're talking about that because this is such a biggie and I have seen just some horrific things from people on long term antacids, especially, gosh, osteoporosis being a big one. But let's talk about low acid, why it happens, what you should do for it, and the real deal behind these acid reflux medications.

Oh, my God, it's horrible. I mean, you said osteoporosis, increased risk for fracture. And another scary thing I found when I was doing research, an article that I wrote about this, and there's an increased risk for pneumonia and you could end up in the hospital. And then if you end up in the hospital, then you have an increased risk of getting C. Diff, if anybody's heard of that. C Diff causes a really dangerous diarrhea and inflammation of the colon that could actually be life threatening. It's really dangerous infection. And then of course, candida or yeast overgrowth. Because your stomach acid is there for a reason. It's protecting you from the microbes that you might inadvertently eat when you're eating food. So not everything is clean. You can't see what's on your food. There are bacteria, there might be mold spores and that your stomach acid is there to protect you from that.

So what should someone do if they have Harper?

Here are some of the top things that people should do. Number one is diet. So there are certain trigger foods and drinks that they should avoid. So gluten containing foods. Gluten is a big trigger for reflux because it's such a water loving molecule. It pulls water and it expands. So when it hits your stomach, it expands and it puts a lot of pressure in there. It's going to push acid up. Then we have things like coffee, caffeine, some people really sensitive to that. And they're going to produce more acid when they drink coffee. Sorry to all your listeners that are.

Coffee, we liked you so much right up until now.

Alcohol, wine, acidic juices, sauces, things that are really fatty like dairy, cheeses that can also trigger reflux. Or cream sauces. When you go out to eat spicy food, fried food, sauteed onions. Okay, they're not going to like me when I say the next one.

I'm holding my breath.

Chocolate.

Yeah, you're right. You just lost everybody.

Chocolate can be a big trigger. But you know what I find is that if you clean out a big part of your diet and you take out some of the other big triggers, you can have your chocolate and it's not going to trigger reflux. It's just really about, it's about the balance that you create.

Good, you're back and you're back. So what about which foods overall for your gut? What are your favorite foods?

My power food is a smoothie that I make for breakfast. And the great thing that I love about doing that is because I need to run out the door. I don't have a lot of time in the morning, but I don't also want to have a breakfast that's not nutritious because breakfast is going to set the tone for your entire day. And so I make a smoothie with a non dairy protein powder or hypoallergenic protein powder. And in it I'll put. Every day it's a different thing. So it's not like I'm making the same smoothie every day. I might switch and put blueberries which are high in polyphenols and antioxidants, or strawberries, or I might put Swiss chard in there or hemp seeds or Brazil nuts. Or sometimes I cut up a sliver of ginger. I'm a big fan of ginger. That's one of those gut superfoods. It's anti inflammatory curcumin, also turmeric, that's another gut superfood anti inflammatory. It's great for people with inflammatory bowel disease, but also for people who have diverticulosis, which is it can result in an inflammation of the colon. And people who suffer from constipation tend to get diverticulosis. So that's kind of like my go to. And then there's bone broth. I love bone broth. It has so many healing properties and it's rich in minerals, rich in collagen. It heals the gut lining and it nourishes the cells that line your gut with the minerals that they need as well as your body so that your microbiome is balanced. And then we can talk about prebiotic foods. So I did a lot of greens, a lot of different greens and mix in root vegetables in there. So like turnips and parsnips and beets because they feed the good bacteria in your guts, you want to rebuild your good guys so they keep the bad guys in check.

And what about, I mean we've talked about someone's of them already, but you're, like, the absolute worst. Run from them. Foods do not touch them.

Dairy is. Is there because a lot of people are lactose intolerant. So if you're suffering from bloating, from acne, even dairy is a big trigger for adult acne. It's better to stay away from. Gluten is problematic. And people who don't think they have a problem with gluten, well, they still may have a problem because there was a study that showed that gluten increased the permeability of the gut. So it caused what we call leaky gut syndrome in people that were normal, that were gluten sensitive, and that had celiac disease. The sicker people had more of an increase in their permeability. But even someone who's normal that you would think has no reaction to gluten also had an increase in their gut permeability. And it's a question. Maybe it's just a matter of time.

Yeah, let's go bold there. Vincent, what do you think about people eating gluten? Is it for some people okay or not?

I think overall, what we've done to the wheat plant, it's not good for anyone.

Yay. That's what I was hoping for.

It's not good for anyone because there's just way too much gluten, and our bodies are not designed to handle that amount of gluten in our food. And that doesn't. That doesn't even touch the surface because wheat is then sprayed with one of the most toxic pesticides. It's called Glyphosate Roundup. Everybody knows Monsanto. And that pesticide is used basically as a convenience to desiccate the wheat, to dry it out so that the farmers can harvest the wheat all at the same time. Well, those pesticide residues stay on the wheat, then you eat it. Then you're going to have that pesticide, which is an antimicrobial. It's an antibiotic. It's going to kill your gut microbiome, cause a dysbiosis, and then lead to weight gain. So it's this big circle.

Yeah. So nothing. Nothing good there is what I would have to say now.

Nothing good.

When I first started telling people to pull out gluten, I got attacked that I was going to create nutrient deficiencies. Like what?

No, but wait. But you know what? That's the other thing. Glyphosate. So that pesticide that gets on wheat is a chelator. What that means is it binds minerals. So talk about creating nutrient deficiency. It's Going to chelate minerals and steal them from you so your body can't absorb them.

Yeah, it's a double whammy. Because you're hurting the gut, it's not going to be able to absorb nutrients as well. And you're binding up nutrients. So when I heard that, I'm like, huh. So let's. I know you've got a cool freemium for everybody today, and we're up against the clock. So before we get to that, I want to throw a little sideways question to you. I didn't warn you about ready. I know you've already been doing that, but now here's one that's not gut related, but maybe it is. So what's the one thing that you do every day that you feel makes the biggest difference in your life?

Well, I kind of gave away the first one, which was my power morning smoothie. So I'm going to say something different that I think is so important for changing the way that you live your life. And I talk about it in my book, Happy Gut Gratitude. Like waking up and writing down or just going through a mental list of what you're grateful for, thinking about everything that you've done that you should pat yourself on the back for, or even simple things that you're grateful for, because then that sets the tone for the day. And from there you can set your intention for what you want out of your life and out of, you know, from one day or where you want to go in your life.

Well, you know how much I love that one. We didn't plan it, I swear. Now I know you have your Happy gut program that really helps someone recover their gut, which really should be, you know, step one. And it goes through. You have this anaccura metaphor of care that stands for something, stands for, what's the C A R E for?

So the foundation of my 28 day happy gut Cleanse is called gut care. And care is just the four steps of the program. Cleanse, activate, restore, and enhance. And each step has a theme to it. You can imagine what cleanse is about. Activate is about all about activating the digestion, making your digestive system work at its optimal level. Restore is about restoring the gut microbiome, and enhance is about healing the leaky gut. Because guess what, everybody has a leaky gut. If you've been on antibiotics once in your life, if you've been stressed, you have a leaky gut. So everybody needs to heal this. And my giveaway to your listeners is if they go to my website, happygutlife.com gift they can get my free quick start guide to a happy gut. And as a bonus, I give them my 10 top tips for a healthy, happy gut. So some of the advice we talked about today, but some other really great bonus tips and just, you know, just kind of a place to give them an idea of where, where do I start? Because that's the biggest question I get, is, okay, I hear your information. I want to make my gut healthier. I want to fix my microbiome. What do I do? Well, that's what I tell them in this free guide and tell them what to eat, what not to eat, and give them shopping lists, ideas of, of recipes that they can make.

Awesome.

Love it.

I'm gonna make it super easy, too. So we'll just do, we'll just make a really easy link so you don't have to remember all that. Jjvirgin.com Happy gut.

There you go.

Jjvirgin.com happy gut that makes it super easy. And you've also got a great book out there, the Happy Gut. So I just want to remind everyone you definitely want to grab that. I think it just came out in paperback too. Makes it easy. So thank you for all of that. I super appreciate you and I'm so glad you could join me today.

Thank you for having me, jj.

So after the break, I'm going to be answering the listeners questions, so stay with me.

The true cause of weight gain is not calories. It's food intolerance. A negative reaction to certain foods, even foods you thought were healthy can lead to a variety of symptoms, including weight gain, acne, bloating, and lack of energy. The solution is simple. Avoid the foods your body doesn't tolerate. But which foods? That's the secret JJ reveals in her book the Virgin Diet. Drop seven foods, lose seven pounds just seven days. Discover the sneaky seven foods by visiting jjvirgin.combooks and be on your way to losing seven pounds in seven days.

Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And by the way, I grab these questions over on my Facebook page. If you go to JJ Virgin official, you can leave a question for me there. This one is from Marcie in Bellevue. And Marcie asks jj, how do I know if I should be taking enzymes or not? I see so many different ones. Don't know if I even need them. How should I do this? All right, Marci, here you go. This actually is kind of a confusing topic, and I've got some standard rule of thumbs here. You heard Dr. Pedre talk about stomach acid. Well, for so many people, the reason that they have heartburn is not because they have too much stomach acid. It is actually because they don't have enough. And when you don't have enough stomach acid, which can happen due to stress and due to aging, are the key factors. Of course, some dietary issues and medications can also play a role here. But those are the two key ones. If you don't have enough food, will sit there and you'll get this mechanical washing back up of the stomach acid against the esophagus and get this esophageal reflux. So if you don't have any history of any kind of ulcers, here's the first thing that I do is I like to give you a trial of enzymes to help you break down protein. This can be proteases or betaine, which will help you break down protein and raise your stomach acid. Now there's a little caveat with this in that I love to use enzymes both for breaking down protein and I love to use enzymes for breaking down fat. What I don't like to do is use enzymes, enzymes that help you break down carbohydrates, because we do that super well already. And the faster you break down carbohydrates, the higher your blood sugar goes. That's why fiber is so key for keeping your blood sugar stable. So I look for an enzyme that's not going to help me break down carbohydrates and one that will help me break down protein. That actually is what my metabolic digestive balance does. That's the whole point, is that you want to slow down carbohydrate absorption or block it while you're improving protein digestion. I have anyone who's over the age of 35, anyone who has any type of stress, and again, no history of any sort of ulcers, go on a trial of these and see how they feel. Because I see with the majority of people, their gas and bloating goes down, they feel so much better, they lose some weight, they have better energy. If you're one of those people who feels more bloated after you eat, you feel like a snake, that food just sits there, you get a little heartburn. This is definitely the way that I would go. I do a trial of protein enzymes to start and I see some game changing experiences from it. I know that it was a big game changer for me. It also can be very helpful. One of the causes of rosacea can be low stomach acid. So it can also help with some of the different skin conditions as well. All right, again, if you'd like to submit a question, just head over to my Facebook page, JJVirginOfficial, and we scan those out to see what to include. And another thing that we love to include here is this is the gratitude portion of the show and this is where I'm going to start including a review each week. So I'm just giving you a heads up now that every week I'm going to be pulling a review from itunes. So I would hugely appreciate it. I've got a bunch of stars, but I don't have as many reviews yet as I'd love to see. So I'd love to feature you. Go ahead and leave a review there and I'll be saying your name on air and reading your review. Thank you so much in advance for that.

Alrighty.

I am now J.J. virgin, signing off. And I want to remind you that the biggest thing that you can do with this show is take action. I hope today that we said one thing that you went, ah, I gotta do that, and that you decide you gotta do that right away. Because it's the little things, the little hinges that swing the big doors, and it's taking inspired action, especially if it scares you a bit, that makes the big changes in your life. When you do that, over time, you build resilience and then you'll find that you are stronger than you think.

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