Uncovering the Truth About Gut Health: How Food, Medicine, and Probiotics Impact Your Gut – Just Thrive Health – #18 | Wellness Her Way Podcast

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

Dear Media IRL is back, and we're showing up bigger, better, and louder than ever. Join us on May 4th in Austin, Texas for the ultimate live podcasting experience. Watch and learn from your favorite Dear Media hosts as they bring their insightful discussions from your headphones to the stage.

Get ready to be inspired, entertained, and watch audio get a makeover. Tickets are on sale now at dearmedia.com/irl. See you on May 4th in Austin, Texas.

You're listening to the Wellness Her Way podcast. I'm your host, Gracie Norton, and I'm so excited to provide you with a space where you get to shape what wellness feels like to you. Wellness Her Way is where we make a home of our body, mind and soul, instead of jumping on trends for short-term results.

We've got one body, we're gonna nourish it, love it, respect it, and embrace it through all its forms. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Wellness Her Way. We're interviewing Tina Anderson, who's an expert on all things gut health.

This conversation was so fascinating to me because she really takes the time to expose and go into detail about why a lot of probiotics may not be effective. I had candy to overgrowth and leaky gut, and unfortunately, because I wasn't aware of the symptoms or warning signs of gut dysbiosis, I was not able to be preventative. So my goal with this episode was to bring in Tina, the founder of Just Thrive, so we can get all the details we need to improve our gut health through nutrition and finding the right probiotic.

I learned so much during this episode, and I know you're going to as well. So let's get into it. One of the things that I love about you and one of the reasons I'm so excited to talk to you is because you had a background in litigation, and then you started working in the pharmaceutical industry and you saw all the abuses that were taking place and you chose to be a part of the solution and not the problem, and you've created this amazing company.

And I think there's so much greenwashing in this space and so much just lack of knowledge when it comes to picking a really great supplement. So thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to dive into your background.

Thank you so much for having me Gracie. I'm so excited to be here with you. Such an impressive young woman and it's an honor to be here talking to you.

Yeah, my story is kind of interesting, isn't it? I was in litigation working crazy hours and then I started having children. I had my first child and then I had my second and I just decided I just couldn't do this anymore.

It was just a lot of hours, not very satisfying in my career either. It was a lot of motions and trial work and it just wasn't super exciting, to be honest with you. And so I decided to go into a family pharmaceutical business and that was great because I'm like, oh, this is awesome.

I'm gonna be delivering life-saving medications or being part of that solution, I thought. And then after being in the pharmaceutical industry, my husband and I were both in the industry together. We started to see a lot of the abuses.

We started to see the overprescribing of medications and really that the focus was on treating symptoms. It wasn't about prevention of disease, and it was never about maintaining our health, our good health. It was always about treating symptoms.

And so it really wasn't health care, it was sick care, as I'm sure you've heard that same before, but it's really true. And we started to see also, my husband had won this huge bid of one of the largest hospital systems in the country. And the pharmaceutical rep came to our office and said, Billy, this is awesome, guess what, we won this great bid.

And now my job is to go to every doctor in the hospital system and tell them to lower the number that they prescribe this particular medication for so that they would sell more of the product, not necessarily to prescribe it if it was needed, it was just to sell more products. So we were like, this is not our life's work. We were very naturally minded anyway with our kids.

I kind of grew up more naturally minded anyway. And so we said we need to do something different. And so we started looking into a lot of different areas of health and wellness, but we really dove into the gut because we started to understand the importance of our gut.

And through, I swear being at the right place at the right time, a lot of prayer and meditation, we were able to license these very exclusive strains from London University, from Dr. Simon Cutting out of Royal Holloway, London University. And from there, Just Thrive was born. We were disruptors in the market and never looked back.

It's been the most gratifying career journey I've ever been on.

What an incredible story. I absolutely love that. And the fact that you're doing it with your husband, you guys sound like quite the dream team.

It's so incredible that you saw the problem and then you were able to take that and be part of the solution. So I have a lot of admiration for that. And for me, when I hear the term gut health, I feel like this is such an umbrella term.

It can mean so many different things. And when I also hear the word probiotic, I feel like that's the first supplement that people will say, hey, I'm having issues with my gut health, take a probiotic. So can you explain, first of all, what the gut microbiome is and why it's important that we have a diverse gut microbiome?

Yeah, so our microbiome is the totality of microorganisms living in and on us, like bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, all these different type of bacteria living in and on us, primarily our bacteria. And our microbiome is made up all of our entire body, but we mostly talk about the gut microbiome because that's mostly where the bacteria is living is in our gut. And we now know that the gut microbiome is dictating virtually every aspect of our overall health.

I mean, it's hard to find any disease out there that's not associated, any non-communicable disease that's not associated with an imbalance in our gut. We are 10 times more bacteria than we are human cells. And that's definitely worth repeating, 10 times more bacteria than we are human cells.

So it's truly our bacteria that's dictating our overall health. And that's really, really hard for people to wrap their heads around. And yet we're living in this world that is so disruptive to our gut health, so disruptive to the bacteria that we're facing.

We're using hand sanitizers that are antibacterial. We're using hand soaps that are antibacterial. And our bacteria is actually healthy.

Less than 1% of it is actually harmful. And yet that's all anybody focuses on. We have to be supporting our bacteria that's around us and living in and on us.

And what are some symptoms that people may start to notice if they don't have a diverse gut microbiome?

Yeah. So people always associate like gas or bloating and diarrhea, constipation, those digestive issues as having some gut dysbiosis or gut imbalance. And those are absolutely conditions that show you they have some gut dysbiosis going on.

But what we're now starting to understand is, you know, skin issues like acne or eczema or different rashes, those are all stemming from our gut health. Our mental health, our mood, our anxiety, depression, Alzheimer's, dementia, all these types of brain health issues are all associated with our gut health. Autoimmune issues are associated with our gut health.

We know allergies, and if you have an allergy, you definitely have some gut dysbiosis going on. Our immune system is in our gut. And we need a diverse microbiome to be healthy.

I mean, this is undisputed in the science and literature. If we have diversity in our microbiome, we have health, and we prolong life, we have longevity. So really important to focus on diversity.

What does that feel like for somebody who is struggling with their gut health? Is there a feeling that may be attached to a gut that's not diverse?

Well, I don't know if it's a feeling necessarily, as much as it's like symptoms that you have. Maybe you're not going to the bathroom regularly. Maybe you're more bloated than normal.

Maybe you're not in a great mood, you don't have energy. You have brain fog. Those are all signs and symptoms that you have some gut imbalance going on.

But what's scary is that there's something called leaky gut.

I have leaky gut?

Okay, yeah. And a lot of people have leaky gut. I mean, they estimate that 80% of the population has a leaky gut and doesn't know it.

And we actually did a double blind human clinical trial on leaky gut, which is unheard of in the supplement space, to have a human clinical trial on an actual product or strains that are used in a product, and that study showed, they did it on healthy college students, and 55% of them had a leaky gut and didn't know it. And so what we like to equate that with is like a drippy faucet. You know, you have this drippiness of the faucet, drippiness, and nobody, there's no problem.

And then one day, it just overflows. And that, you know, people will say, I've never had allergies before. Well, it didn't just happen overnight.

It's been happening for a while because you have this leakiness in the gut. And like I said, they estimate 80% of the adult population probably has one because we're living in this world that's so disruptive to our gut.

And that's the next topic that I wanted to talk to you about is that, why is it so common now? You know, when I talked to my parents about gut health, they were like, what do you mean gut health? Like you go to the bathroom every day, you know, that's your gut health is you're having regular bowel movements.

Why do you think it's so common? I see a lot of women that are speaking about having these inflammation, digestive issues, and it's so common.

Yeah, well, it's because our guts are being attacked on a daily basis. Some of the biggest offenders out there are antibiotics. So we know we've been taking tons of antibiotics.

The CDC even estimates that 50% of antibiotics that are prescribed are actually not necessary. So they were unnecessary. And so when you take an antibiotic, it's literally killing off the good bacteria.

We want to take it to kill off the bad bacteria, but it's killing off the good bacteria. It's kind of like if you like envision like a neighborhood and one house out of the 50 have mold, and then you go and carpet bomb all of the houses in the neighborhood, all 50 of them just because of this one house with mold. But a lot of times we need to do that.

I don't ever say you shouldn't take an antibiotic, but I think you have to be very mindful that you take it when you truly have a bacterial infection rather than a virus or anything, something else where you just don't feel well. But we know antibiotics are incredibly disruptive to our gut microbiome. And it's not just the antibiotics that we take, but antibiotics in our animal products.

They're all over the place. Another big offender besides antibiotics is glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup. And we know Roundup is being sprayed all over our produce.

That's why I'm a huge fan of eating clean as much as possible. That Roundup is so disruptive. It's actually worse than antibiotics, or you could argue that it's worse than antibiotics because Roundup only targets the good bacteria.

And at least an antibiotic will kill off the bad bacteria. But Roundup, when it gets into your system, is only targeting the beneficial bacteria.

I did not know that.

I know, isn't it scary?

Very scary.

We try to eat clean, but even our rainwater has glyphosate. It's just mind blowing to me that our country allows this. When you go to Europe and it's not allowed, they're not permitted.

And then stress is another big offender to our gut health. Obviously, there's like epidemic levels of stress nowadays, and everyone thinks, oh, that's not true. How could that affect your microbiome?

Well, there's a huge connection between the gut and the brain, and there's signals going back and forth to each other all the time. And so if you think about times where you're excited about something, what happens?

Get a little butterflies.

I mean, that's your brain talking to your gut. And then, or you have to go to the bathroom because you're nervous about something. It's all connected.

I always recommend people try to live as healthy and calm of a lifestyle as possible, because that really does support your gut health.

Yeah, I can attest to that. When I started working on my gut health, my mood changed, my energy changed. Just so many aspects of my health were connected to my gut.

And that's when I started learning about the gut-brain connection. And I think the stronger our gut health, the more powerful those signals and those connections are. And so I think knowing that it goes both ways and that you're not just improving your gut just to have better bowel movements.

There's so many other aspects of our health that can be impacted by that. And a lot of that starts with taking good supplements and having a really great probiotic. I know you guys developed your own strain, but is that what you think was missing in other probiotics?

And the other thing that I see a lot too is some are refrigerated and some are not. And this is somebody who, you know, I feel like I kind of know what to look for on labels. But when I see that, my first thought was, okay, this has to be refrigerated.

It also has to survive through my gastric juices. And how is it surviving in there if it can only live in the fridge? So I don't know if I'm thinking through that right, but that was one of the red flags that kind of came up when I was looking at probiotics.

It's like, why do all these need to be refrigerated?

Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head there, Gracie. That's exactly it. I mean, it's just common sense.

That's like the biggest myth out there, is that a probiotic needs to be refrigerated to be a good probiotic. I mean, you even hear doctors saying that. And there's nothing further from the truth because if it can't withstand the room temperature of the store shelf, then how in the world would it survive your body temperature, which is much warmer than the store shelf of 98.6, but then much less the gastric system?

We know the stomach is meant to be the gastric barrier. It's very acidic. I mean, your finger would burn if you touch the acid in your stomach.

So we know that most of probiotics are dying by the time they get to the intestines, or they don't make it to the intestines because the stomach acid is killing them off, and especially those in the refrigerator. So people say, oh, I want a probiotic to be alive. Well, it needs to be alive in the intestines.

Where it matters. Not alive in the fridge. Exactly.

Exactly. You got it. You're an easy student.

Oh, my gosh.

You have that. I mean, when I'm looking at a label, I was like, it's so funny because I used to think the same thing. Like, okay, probiotic in the fridge.

This is great. I'm keeping it stored where it needs to be. And then I was like, wait a second.

It kind of hit me one morning. I'm like, I don't think I'm taking the right probiotic. And not that it doesn't have some benefit, but I want one that can survive where it needs to survive and where it can actually improve my gut health.

My next question for you is like, how can we tell when a probiotic is actually working? Are there signs that we're going to notice other than improved digestion? Or like, what does that timeframe kind of look like where we know we've picked the right supplement?

Yeah, so I would say on average, people start to notice a difference between three and four weeks, but I always encourage you to stay on it for at least three months. And the reason is that that's when you start to, that's like where the magic happens. A lot of times people will come to the probiotic because they have really bad bloating or they have really bad gas or they're not going to the bathroom regularly or maybe they have a skin issue or whatever it is that they come to the probiotic.

But then when you start, when you stay on it for a while, you start to see the magic. You start to see, like you said, more energy, sleeping better. I mean, I have one friend that said it saved her marriage because she's like, I had no energy.

I never could go anywhere. And my doctor would just say, oh, you're just getting older. And it's like, no, you know, she knew there was something off and she started having more energy and being able to sleep better.

All of these great things start to happen when you start to fix your gut.

The other thing I want to talk to you about was the spores probiotic, correct?

It's a spore based probiotic, spore based probiotics.

So can you explain what that means? What a spore is and why it's important that it's in the probiotic?

Yes, well, we only work with spore based probiotics. So this is not a mushroom spore. So I think that sometimes could be really confusing to people.

It's called a spore based probiotic because it has this endospore shell around itself. And this shell is not something that we've engineered. You know, you see a lot of probiotics out there that are engineering different ways to make them survive.

But these spores naturally survive. Our ancestors evolved with these spores. They would eat roots and tubers off the land, and they would eat the soil, and they were meant to be consumed on a regular basis.

So these spores, the biggest difference is they have this endospore shell around themselves, and that allows them to survive the gastric system. And again, it's not something we've engineered. They are just naturally, they have a spore, this armor-like shell around themselves, and that's how they get through the gastric system.

And then once they hit the intestines, they recognize the intestines as their home, and then they take their shell off, and that's where they go to work, and they stay there for about 21 to 28 days. And that's where they become live when they get to the intestines. So bacteria and microorganisms are very intelligent.

Bacteria are very intelligent. They know that when they get to the intestines, that's what they're meant to do.

So when we're shopping and we're looking at the label, what are the top things that we should be looking at? Is it spore-based?

Spore-based, and the way... Yeah, not refrigerated, the way you know it's spore-based generally is it starts with bacillus. Most probiotics you'll see are lactobacillus or they'll start with bifidobacterium.

So ours are bacillus, bacillus subtilis, bacillus indicus. We have four different strains in there. If they start with bacillus and if they say spore-based, even better.

Perfect. And then the time of day is another thing that I feel like you can either take it in the morning or the night. Is there a time that's more beneficial for our bodies or if it's the right probiotic, does it not matter what time of day you take it?

Yeah.

We're all about studying that. When we don't know an answer to the question, we study it. And so most probiotic companies would tell you take it on an empty stomach because when you have an empty stomach, you have a higher pH of your stomach.

So when you have higher pH, it allows for greater survivability. And so they're hoping, oh, maybe we could get some of them to survive on the empty stomach. We actually tested ours and it showed that ours would survive at a pH of 1.2, which is like a normal pH of people's.

And so you could take them with food, without food, it works better in the presence of food. We studied that. The time of day doesn't really matter for ours.

You could take it any time of day, just take it in the presence of food. We have a study that the strains proliferate in the presence of food. So they'll work that much better.

You could take it on empty stomach if you wanted to, but it just works better in the presence of food. But the time of day does not matter for our probiotics.

Amazing. And the other thing that I see a lot, and I feel like I see it more and more just through TikTok and Instagram, is probiotic yogurts, we've got prebiotic drinks. Are these things actually beneficial?

I know they should not take the place of our probiotics, but do you think it's kind of just a greenwashing marketing tactic to get people to think that they're making a healthier option or what is your stance on that?

Yeah, I think the probiotic yogurts containing those lactobacillus strains that I reference and they would have trouble surviving the gastric system too. So it's pretty much you're going to get a bacteria that's not alive when it gets there. It might give you some benefit.

I do believe in like fermented foods. Fermented foods are not a replacement for a probiotic because they also will arrive not alive, arrive dead in the intestines, but they will actually support your gut in some respects. The problem again with a lot of these probiotics yogurts is just that they're loaded with sugar.

So here we are doing something that we think is healthy and it's counterproductive.

Right. That was a big thing when I was healing my Candida overgrowth was removing that refined sugar. So it's like if you're trying to like repair your gut and then you're feeding things like Candida, it's going to continue to grow and cause more discomforts.

What about the prebiotic sodas? What is your opinion on that?

Yes. I always say you should always get everything through food. With our probiotics, you couldn't find food that have these type of strains in them.

They were found in the soil. If you go to a tribe in Papua New Guinea, you will find these strains. They're there in the soil.

But of course, the soil that we have now, it's over farmed, it's deplete of nutrients. So you wouldn't get that. Prebiotics, you can get from food.

The thing is, it's so important to get lots of prebiotics. It's so important because it really benefits that diversity. So the probiotic will alone, our spores will actually create more diversity in the gut.

But then you add our prebiotic in, and it's this lush, beautiful garden that you start to have in your gut. Because the prebiotics are the food, they're like the fertilizer for the garden. They're the fertilizer and the food for the beneficial bacteria.

So the problem with a lot of prebiotics out there and a lot of fibers is that they are actually, sometimes they make a problem worse. Because if you have an overgrowth of bad bacteria and you start taking a prebiotic, it may feed that bad bacteria. So we waited a while before we launched a prebiotic to make sure that we call it a precision prebiotic because it only targets the beneficial bacteria in the gut.

It doesn't target any of the bad bacteria, the overgrowth of the pathogenic bacteria. So you could eat all the vegetables in the world, and you're not going to get as money if you take the prebiotic.

And that's a separate supplement than your probiotic?

It is, yes. And we have it in powder form and pill form.

And is it good to take those two together?

It is. I always recommend people starting with the probiotic about maybe three weeks or so, and then introducing the prebiotic just because you want to see what you're feeling on both of them. And then again, the longer you're on it, you start to see all the magic.

You see the bloating going down, you see your skin looking better, you see more energy, better sleep, better mood, even weight management. We've heard that a lot because it's your bacteria that's dictating it. Your firmicides, actually, if you have more firmicides, you're one of those people that just gains weight really quickly.

And so if you have more bacteroides, it means you're one of those people that is able to eat a little bit more and not gain weight. So it's our bacteria dictating all kinds of aspects of our health.

When it comes to not disrupting our gut microbiome, are there any foods that you tell people to stay away from or any foods that you see really disrupting our gut?

You know what? I'm a fan of eating a diverse group of foods. So we live in such a world where it's like...

Yeah, we eat the same thing. We are like vegan or we're paleo or we're carnivore. And I'm just a huge fan of eating a diverse group of foods.

Our ancestors used to eat 500, 600 different types of food a year. And I think on average, we eat like 15 to 16 different types of food a year. If you have a food sensitivity to something, that's a sign you have gut dysbiosis.

The answer isn't just not eating broccoli anymore because broccoli is disruptive to you. It's like, why is it disruptive to me? And the goal is to try to slowly introduce it back in as you start to fix your gut and heal your gut.

Yes, and this is one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about because this is what I experienced. I had quite a few sensitivities, including gluten and dairy. And now I'm at a place where I can tolerate those things and not have any symptoms.

And I think that's the magic in the healing journey. I think sometimes people, they make these changes and they think, oh my gosh, I have to maintain these changes for life or else I'm never going to be okay. And for me, that was never the goal.

Going into this, I'm like, my goal is to get to a place where I can tolerate these things. Obviously, a moderation, but that's really great to hear you say because a lot of people think that it's a way they have to live forever.

Yeah, no. I mean, the minute you start healing that leakiness of the gut, you're able to start introducing food slower. Of course, I'd never say if you have a severe peanut allergy, you just take our product, and then all of a sudden you could, you start doing things to support your gut, and now all of a sudden you could just go ahead and eat peanuts.

But I think the goal is exactly what you said, to try to slowly introduce foods and be able to tolerate them.

Another thing along my healing journey was that I didn't realize, so when I was in high school, I had chronic UTIs, and I was taking all these antibiotics. And I know we touched on this earlier. So when we take antibiotics, it's killing both our good and our bad bacteria.

So let's say somebody has been really prioritizing and taking care of their gut health for a year or two, right? We get a UTI. Is this starting over from ground zero?

Is it starting over from ground zero if you take an antibiotic?

Yes, and then we find out we have to take an antibiotic. Is all the work that we have done the past few years down the drain?

No, of course not, because now you've built up your gut and you're able to withstand offenders that much more. So that's the goal of what you're doing. My goal in health is always to be resilient.

We want to be resilient because we're going to be faced with infections, viruses, bacterial infections, whatever it might be. And so we just want to make ourselves as strong and be able to be prepared for these offenders that come our way. So the thing is, if you need to be an antibiotic, the beautiful part about the spores is we've tested this with one of the strongest antibiotics out there with liver encephalitis patients.

So these patients are like the strongest antibiotics, and we found our strains actually survive the presence of an antibiotic, so you could take it at the same time.

Oh, wow, okay.

The overwhelming majority of probiotics would be killed off by not just the stomach acid, but the presence of an antibiotic, where ours actually survived the presence of an antibiotic. So if you did need to be on an antibiotic, this is a great product to take at the same time, too. So again, antibiotics save lives.

I never want to tell somebody not to take an antibiotic or not to be on a pharmaceutical. I just feel pharmaceuticals are there for acute type situations, emergency type situations, but not for chronic conditions. I'm all about getting to the root cause and figuring out how to create a resilient body.

Right, so you can take the probiotic while you're on antibiotics. And then is there any other post-care habits that you recommend in terms of this nutrition or even just physical activity that may help our bodies rebalance quicker?

Oh, absolutely. I think meditation or whatever it is that brings you calm. And I think walking in nature, being very prescriptive.

If you live near an ocean, get into the water and try to get... Those are different microbes that are super beneficial to you. And being in nature exposes you, like going on a walk and a hike somewhere where you're more in nature.

That's super beneficial to you. I mean, I'm always stuck walking in my neighborhood, which is fine because it's great to get outside and get the sunshine. But just whatever it is that calms you down, that will be really helpful.

And then avoiding things, really avoiding foods, processed foods, sugar, alcohol, all those things that are really disruptive. And that yeast overgrowth that you mentioned, that's the other thing. These spores actually elbow out the overgrowth of Candida.

Candida is a normal part of our gut flora. It's just that overgrowth of it where it becomes problematic. And these spores actually that are found in Just Thrive actually have the ability to like, we say elbow out the overgrowth of it.

So that's really exciting too.

Yeah, I think that was one of the things I wish I'd been more educated on because I would go to get a prescription. I would take the antibiotics. And then I just had no idea that over time, it was causing so much disruption in my gut health.

And it's one of those things that, you know, you wait till there's a problem. You don't know how to prevent if you don't have the knowledge. So I think part of it for me was just now that I understand, here's what I can do.

But so many people are prescribed antibiotics. And I think...

Yeah, it was the CDC's own study. So the 50% of antibiotics are unnecessary. They're prescribed for viral infections, not for bacterial infections.

So what are questions that we can ask when we're getting prescriptions? Or is there an alternative?

I would say, is it a bacterial infection? And I think doctors are getting better about that. They're starting to understand a little bit more about gut health.

And I think they know now that the antibiotics are destroying the bacteria. But I think I would say, is it a bacterial infection? And if not, why would I need to be on an antibiotic?

But a lot of times, it's the patients asking for it. You know, I'm going to Mexico. Can I get a prescription for an antibiotic?

Just be mindful of that. And then the other thing I wanted to mention when you're talking about Candida is you get less sugar cravings. That's another big benefit of the product.

I hear that all the time. Because when you start getting rid of that Candida overgrowth, you have less sugar cravings.

It's not like craving for hunger.

Yes, exactly. So that's another great benefit of the product also.

That's incredible. Yeah, I think there are so many things that we don't realize at the time. Like, oh, why am I craving?

There's so much mystery around it. And then it's like when you find the root issue, or when you start taking the right supplement, the right probiotic, it's like, oh my gosh, this is connected to my cravings. It's connected to my sleep.

It's connected to my mood. You find that everything is just falling into place. I do want to talk about the gut-brain connection.

Can you explain what it is and why it's important for us to understand that there are constant signals going back and forth?

Yeah, so we all have something called the vagus nerve, and the vagus nerve connects from the brain stem down to the intestines. I call it the communication superhighway because they're going back and forth, sending signals to each other. So I always tell people, be calm, meditate, do things to support your gut health so you could have better digestion and your gut is more balanced and diverse.

But then the opposite is true, too, because the brain is sending signals down to the gut and the gut is sending signals back to the brain. So you want to take care of your gut so that you have happy hormones that are being produced in your gut. Our neurotransmitters are being produced in our gut.

So serotonin, which is our happy hormone, 90% of our serotonin, our happy hormone, is produced in our gut, not in our brain. It's produced in our gut.

That is an insane statistic, but it's important for people to know that.

Dopamine is produced in our gut. GABA, which is our calming hormone, is produced in our gut. All these important neurotransmitters are being produced in our gut.

So when you are taking care of your gut health, it's sending those signals back up to your brain. And then our brain health is sending signals back down to our gut. It's just super important to try to eliminate stressors.

We all have stressors. We want to get out of that fight or flight response. The fight or flight response is a protective mechanism of ours.

Our ancestors would be chased by a tiger, and they would need that fight or flight response to run away from that tiger. But now we read a tweet, and we're in that fight or flight state. And it's an epidemic.

People can't get down from this fight or flight response. And it's so disruptive. Our cortisol levels are off the charts.

So it's really, really important that we try to get down from that. We actually have a psychobiotic strain called Bifidolongum 1714, and this strain is in our Just Calm product. And that product actually helps us deal with those external stressors.

So there's two types of inflammation that go to our brain. One is from toxins from our gut that seep in through leaky gut to our bloodstream and go up to our brain. And that's one form of inflammation.

And that's what the probiotic, the spore-based probiotic will hopefully take care of. It's helping sealing up that leakyness of the gut. But then we have those external stressors that we're dealing with.

We can't get away from them. I mean, we try our hardest, but we can't get away from them all the time. And so the psychobiotic strain that we have in our Just Calm product actually helps bring down cortisol levels.

It's been in eight published studies showing that it's putting us more in that flow state. It's helping us perceive stress better, so we're able to handle stressors better. And so having this double whammy of taking care of one aspect of brain inflammation and then taking care of the external stressors that we deal with, it's a great tool for people.

And what might that connection look like, or what might that feel like if somebody isn't prioritizing their gut health? Is it more anxiety? Is it trouble sleeping?

Or what are some of those symptoms that people may have?

Yeah, definitely trouble sleeping and more anxiety. We see that all the time. We see just your overall mood and your motivation.

All of those things are related. And again, this gut imbalance can manifest in so many different ways and so many different people. It could be acne for one person.

It could be Crohn's disease for another person. It could be anxiety for another person. It could be allergies for a different person.

So somebody that gets sick all the time. So the gut doesn't discriminate where it's going to attack, but it could go to any of your organs. And that's why, say, like 90% of non-communicable diseases are stemming from our gut.

So it's where you start with health. I mean, it's great to take vitamin C and vitamin D. I'm huge fans of those supplements and getting those nutrients.

But if our gut is inflamed in any way, which unfortunately in the world we live in, most of our guts are inflamed, it has trouble absorbing those nutrients. So where you start, ground zero for health is your gut.

I couldn't agree more. That was the first place that I really felt a difference in multiple aspects of my health. And at first I was like, I don't really know what it would feel like to feel good because I got used to feeling not great.

And I would wake up, have the inflammation, have the bloat, but it was for me the foundation of health. I also want to talk about pregnant women taking probiotics. This is a question I get a lot.

And is it safe for your children to take as well?

Yes, great question. I always tell pregnant women to ask their doctor if they could take a probiotic. Most of them would say yes, I would imagine.

I can't imagine any reason why you couldn't take a probiotic when pregnant, but you always should, as a pregnant woman, ask your doctor. But I can't overstate enough how important it is for a pregnant woman to take care of their gut health, because the only time you're inoculated with your bacteria, a baby is inoculated with their bacteria, is through vaginal childbirth, breastfeeding, and close skin-to-skin contact. So it is so critical as a pregnant mom.

The best gift you could give your child is a healthy microbiome. So that is such an important time before pregnancy, during pregnancy, to be taking care of your microbiome. And obviously the spores are a very great tool in the toolbox, as well as the other tools we mentioned.

But I can't tell you how important it is to have, you know, pass on your microbiome to your child.

Yeah, I was curious about that, if you're taking the probiotic. I mean, is it, are you naturally going to be born then with a better microbiome as a kid?

I mean, if the mom's microbiome is passed on to the child's microbiome, or to the child, and that's actually in nature, the only time we were inoculated with our bacteria. That's the only time we got Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Those are the strains that are in most probiotics.

But really, we didn't evolve getting Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium from nature. We evolved from getting it from our mother through vaginal childbirth. And then, of course, it's great for kids, too.

It's really good for kids.

And you can also bake with your probiotics.

Yes.

They can withstand extreme heat, which is incredible.

Yeah, we actually studied that also. We studied it up to 455 degrees, so you could open them and mix them in your own. I used to put it in my son's piping hot oatmeal or whatever, his eggs, whatever I gave him.

I would open the capsule and mix it with food, and he wouldn't even know it was there. I mean, it doesn't taste like anything. It's tasteless, colorless, odorless.

Yeah, and this might be a silly question, but this is something that I've also heard surrounding transferring your microbiome, the people that you're around, and your family, and the environment that you live in. If somebody, let's say your husband, doesn't have a great microbiome, and you are in physical contact, or you're sharing the same space, can that transfer? Let's say one of us is taking really great care of our gut health, or taking our Just Thrive probiotic, can that gut health or the microbiome transfer?

Yeah, unfortunately, yes. It's something we call the microbiome cloud. When you think about it, it's kind of gross, but you go to the bathroom, and you flush the toilet, and all of those microbes are being sprayed all over the place, and then you go into the bathroom afterwards, and they see that with people.

If one person in the household is on an antibiotic, and then other people are in the household, they start getting some of the effects of the antibiotic. Obviously, it's not as drastic if you're the one taking it. But yeah, I mean, there are studies that show that there's something called the microbiome cloud, and people in your household will share their microbiome.

But the good news is that if you're good, if you're healthy, then you're sharing your good microbiome with your loved one.

You're sharing your good, you're like, come on, give it back to me. Like, let's go on, let's be a part of a team.

Exactly.

So what are some things that we can do then? Let's say one partner is taking really great care of their gut health and the other isn't. Should we just slip the probiotic into their morning smoothie?

That would be a really easy solution. It's super easy to take one a day. They wouldn't even know it's there.

Oh, great. I love that kids can take it as well. And I think in general, those are the things that we don't think about.

Even if we're taking care of our own health, it's important to make sure the people that we're around and our living environment is conducive to our well-being.

With kids, I get particularly passionate as a mother of three. You know, just seeing all the kids with all these allergies, it's just, it's so sad. I mean, when I was a child, which was many, many years ago, I knew one child from kindergarten all the way through the end of high school who had a peanut allergy.

Everyone has allergies now.

I know. You can't go to a restaurant without them asking you, you know, what are your food allergies? And this is an epidemic that we're dealing with right now, and it's really all stemming from an imbalance in our gut.

And too, it's just that we mentioned this earlier about just we're over sanitizing everything. I feel like we live in an era right now where it's just, I don't want to say too clean, but we need some of that bacteria. So what are some examples of things that you've seen where people have been over sanitizing?

Yeah, well, actually, there's a study on this that showed that households that use cleaning products that, say, kills 99.99% of the bacteria actually have children that have a higher incidence of allergies and autoimmune issues. So it's real. I mean, bacteria is our friend, and we have to remember that.

It's good, you know, we can't be over cleaning. All of these household products, cleaning products, hair care products, all of those types of things, obviously, they're just loaded with disruptors to our microbiome.

For someone who is a beginner, let's say nutrition-wise, what are some things that you recommend that they can implement right away, whether that's eating organic, drinking filtered water, like what are the three main things that you can change right away to help improve your gut health?

I think I would really try to focus on eating animal products that don't have antibiotics in them, obviously avoiding antibiotics in general just to take them, but unless you absolutely need to. And then eating organic is huge, and I know it's expensive, but you could do it on a budget, or even if you just slowly start to implement it. You can't do everything perfectly.

I always recommend just giving yourself grace in the process, but trying to eat the different types of vegetables, or if there's an organic vegetable that's on sale, maybe try that one, that one's different, or go in the frozen section and find some organic vegetables or fruits. So you could start having more organic food, so you're avoiding the glyphosates as well. And of course, a lot of it is just eliminating things, eliminating the processed foods, and go slowly, just take baby steps.

None of us are perfect, but I used to, God, years ago, I used to be a huge diet coke fanatic.

Mom, if you're listening, my mom is addicted to diet cokes. She drinks like two or three a day.

Oh my gosh.

I'm speaking to her right now.

I will try to be your motivation, because that's exactly the way I was. And I just, I kind of cut cold turkey. And I mean, I think it's been almost 10 years since I've had a diet coke.

And it's crazy. But I was like, it's so bad for me. I don't want to have this anymore.

But again, you don't always have to cut things cold turkey. But maybe your mom just does one a day. And then eventually she'll do one every other day.

And eventually, you know, get rid of it.

But I think some people get so overwhelmed and they don't know where to begin. Does having pets around also change your microbiome? Yes.

How does that work?

Pets actually are incredibly beneficial to our microbiome. There are studies that show that households that have pets actually have healthier microbiomes because they're outside in the soil and they're getting the microbes and they're bringing it in the house. On top of like just the gut-brain connection, your pet makes you happy.

And so that's just great for your gut too. So yeah, if you're a pet lover, that's a good thing for your microbiome.

Amazing. I need to get a dog. I need to get an excuse.

Yeah, I hope my daughter doesn't listen to this because she's wanted a pet for many, many years. And I've never let her get one. And now she's an adult, she could get her own.

It's good for my health. I need a dog. I want to get into a few misconceptions when it comes to just probiotics in general, or if you could play a myth buster for a day, and you were to see trends on TikTok or Instagram, what would you want to go out there and just be like, I am going to bust this myth.

Well, we already busted the refrigeration myth.

We did.

So that's good. Done. Check.

The next one is that having a probiotic that has 15 or 10 or 15 different strains is better than a probiotic that has one or two or three. That is such a myth out there. In fact, it almost could be dangerous to be taking a probiotic with all of those different strains because what is kind of too science-y, so I'll try to make it simple.

But if you have a probiotic that has, let's say, 10, 15 strains, what companies are doing here, they're taking all those strains and putting them into one vat, and then they all grow those strains together. And then you don't know what happens when these are live microorganisms in this vat, and now one could take over another, and that one that was listed on labels is no longer in there. But what's worse is two strains could come together and create a whole new strain that we don't know if it's beneficial, we don't know if it's harmful, we don't know if it's benign, we just don't know anything about it.

And there was a study that UC Davis did, it was actually on a children's probiotic, that showed that these probiotics that have lots of different strains actually are not matching the label. So we have to be really careful about those probiotics other than have lots of different strains in them. And the whole story behind those is that, oh, they create diversity.

We have lots of diverse number of strains, but when you think about it, you have trillions of organisms living in your gut. And so think of a pool, like an ingrown pool that's filled with quarters. Throwing a probiotic with 15 different strains is like taking three pennies and throwing it into that pool of quarters.

It's making virtually no difference. So the way you create diversity is with the spores. You go in and you take your own bacteria that's already with you, that's part of you, and help bring it back to life.

And that's what the spores are doing. They're helping bring your microbes back to life and creating more diversity. I wouldn't get caught up on the number of strains in there.

It's more about how were the strains that are on a label, how were they studied, what did they do, what effect did they have on the body? And unfortunately, many don't have any studies on them. The other big one is 250 billion CFUs.

If you see on the front, they'll say like 50 billion CFUs.

Yes, I was going to ask you about that when I was talking about labels. I'm like, should the number be really big? Should the number be small?

Is it important? Is it not important?

It's irrelevant, really. It's like they put in 50 billion CFUs. More is better in America, right?

It's like 250 billion CFUs. There's no studies that more is better. What we need to focus on are the ones that are in the product.

Are they making a true change? We only have 3 billion CFUs in our product. And we know that after two and a half weeks, these strains created a 30% favorable shift in the gut microbiome.

I mean, that is so profound, it's unheard of. We know that our 3 billion CFUs with only four strains created, you know, started sealing up the leakiness of the gut. So it's about what do the strains, what effect do they have on the body?

And that's where we've studied it. We know based on research on humans, not just like Petri dish studies, but on actual humans with our formulation.

Wow, that's incredible. Are there any myths when it comes to just nutrition in general or digestion in general that you either agree or disagree with?

Well, we kind of touched on it, but the whole thing of like avoiding foods, you know, I just think avoiding foods is a problem. I think we should try to introduce these foods. So people will start saying, oh, broccoli or red peppers or whatever it is, is disrupting.

It bothers me when I eat it, but that doesn't mean you should avoid it. So that would be one. And the other thing is gluten.

You know, you mentioned gluten earlier. Even if you don't have an intolerance to gluten or a sensitivity to gluten, gluten is not a friend to us. It's very disruptive to our gut.

I would argue that we all have an intolerance to gluten because it attacks that gut lining that's really important. I would just try to avoid it as much as possible. I have no problems with gluten, so I do sometimes eat gluten, I will admit, but I know it's not good for my gut lining, so that's why I do lots of things to protect it.

You got to have a little bit of balance.

Yes, exactly.

And what about just probiotics in general? Is this something that we should be taking every day for the rest of our life, or is it something we should cycle, or is it something we should just take indefinitely?

Yeah, the reason I think it's something that we should be taking on a very regular basis for, I would say probably for the rest of our lives, is just the fact that our gut is being attacked on a daily basis. I mean, everything that we're doing, unfortunately, is attacking our gut. So maybe you climb to the probiotic just for some digestive issues, gas or bloating, or a skin issue, but then you decide, oh, I don't need it anymore, I've resolved my issue.

But then I would go to maybe a maintenance dose. You could go to one every other day, or one every third day, whatever is easiest for you. Of course, I feel very strongly.

My kids are all on it every day. My parents, my in-laws, my sisters, all my family, all my family, my in-laws. Yes, exactly.

So I want everyone to be healthy. But I think you could go on a maintenance dose if you'd like to.

Right, so it's something we should be taking indefinitely, though, ultimately.

It really is because, and I would never say that if we were able to get it from the foods from our soil, but we just aren't getting it from our soil. You know, with a lot of supplements you take, you could get them from food. You just can't get these spores from food.

And it's okay to take the same probiotic indefinitely as well. Or should you switch up brands every now and again?

That's a great question, actually, because I think that's another little bit of a myth out there. I understand the reasoning behind it, because it's like, oh, getting different strains is going to create diversity. But if you remember with the spores, the difference is that they are creating diversity because they're bringing your own bacterial organisms back to life, which is trillions and all these different types of organisms that we have.

So I would definitely, it wouldn't be necessary to do that with the spores. But again, I think there might be a time down the road where we maybe are taking five or six different types of probiotics because that's how important our gut health is. But the spores are just, they're so effective.

Like again, the garden I talked about, it's just making this lush garden and it's getting rid of the overgrowth. And a lot of those other probiotics aren't doing anything with that overgrowth of the bacteria, which is why I would recommend that the spore-based probiotics that are found in Just Thrive would be something to be taken on a regular basis.

Right, so the magic is in the spores, and that's the reason why you wouldn't need to search for all these different strains. However, if you're taking a probiotic that's not spore-based, then you could see why you may need to rotate and whatnot.

Right, the magic is in the spores. Yes, the magic is in the spores.

I love that so much. I feel like I've learned so much about probiotics just in this short time, so thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge. You are just so kind, and it's so great to meet you in person.

And I think this is just one of those things when it comes down to, when I think about my health journey, making informed decisions, where there's so many supplements that are out there, a lot of greenwashing, and so many things that promise to heal or to just alleviate different symptoms. And so I think having the education and knowing that you've created a product that works and that can help so many aspects of our health and that everything starts in the cut. I feel like for me, the first change that I made was a really great probiotic.

So if I could go all over, start my whole health journey all over again, that would be the first supplement that I wish I would have started with. So thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge with us.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me, and I couldn't agree with you more. And I'm really passionate, and our company is very passionate about empowering people, just like you are.

And I'm so in awe of the fact that you've created this and are creating so much education around the young people, because they're so thirsty for this information and hungry for this information. They want to learn more about their health. And we have health coaches on our team.

We have product coaches on our team to help navigate people. So if people have questions, we want to empower you. We want to empower people to just understand what they're taking and not just take it for granted.

Exactly. Where can everybody find you in the Just Thrive products? We're going to link everything in the show notes and we have offers as well, but I'll go ahead and let you tell everybody where they can find you.

Yeah, the best place to find us is at justthrivehealth.com. And I know we have a coupon code for you guys. So it's Gracie.

And it's 20% off for the 90 day. So we have a 90 day. That way, I'm so passionate about having people stay on it for 90 days, because then you'll see, like I said, the magic that happens.

So it's 90 day for the probiotic, for the spore-based probiotic, and then 90 day for the JustCalm products. And we have 90 days of both of those. So justthrivehealth.com and the coupon code Gracie.

Perfect. Thank you guys so much for listening. I know I feel so empowered after this conversation.

And I think it's great to make informed decisions. And you guys are doing such incredible things in this space. So thank you.

Thank you, Gracie. It's been awesome.

Thank you so much for listening and hanging out with me today. You can catch a new episode of Wellness Her Way every Monday. I want to hear from you, so please subscribe, leave a review for this podcast, and let me know what you thought of this episode.

Be sure to follow at Wellness Her Way podcast on Instagram to connect with me and send in all the questions and topics you'd like to hear about. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of this amazing community. I'll see you next week.

Peace.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Thank you.