Can a lactose free diet help me with my leaky gut problem? Very good question. Now lactose intolerance is not a common thing, right? Everyone thinks that, “Oh yeah, I avoid dairy and I’ve got dairy allergies, and I’ve got intolerances.” And it does happen, okay? But it’s not as common as you think.
A cool thing to do is if you really think you have a lactose problem, is to stop all dairy products and to see if the bowel firm’s up. Because if you don’t have lactase, or don’t have sufficient lactase, the enzyme to break the lactose down, the result will be … Tummy problems, there’ll be gas, there’ll be bloating, there’ll be diarrhea. So lactose presents itself in that way. It’ll present itself, diarrhea, bloating.
People usually pick up early on in life if they’ve got a lactose problem, not generally late in life, okay? What people pick up later in life, I’ve found personally through my clinic, is celiac. Okay? So a young person may be struggling for years and years all through school, and then finally get diagnosed as being a celiac, all right? But the lactose thing, I find people pick up on that usually earlier on in life.
So yeah, absolutely. If you really have a lactose problem, and you stop milk completely, and anything containing that milk sugar, you’ll find that the bacteria will start balancing out more, okay? Because high lactose counts can push people often into a candida, or a bacterial problem, an imbalance. So, and that will present itself with many symptoms, right? So definitely take that out of the diet and see what happens. If you’ve got leaky gut, it’s good to cut right back on cow’s milk anyway. And there are other milks that you can consume, which are probably better for you. Goat’s milk, for example, resembles breast milk more and tends to be a little better for the gut than cow’s milk. So give that a go.
What are the benefits of digestive enzymes for leaky gut? There are massive benefits. So if you have got leaky gut, which many people have, the digestive enzymes are going to fill a really good spot when it comes to that kind of problem. They’re going to facilitate the proper breakdown of food. Okay? Some people believe if you take digestive enzymes, it stops the body producing its own. It doesn’t do that. It assists the body. But what the digestive enzymes will do is make sure that the fats, carbs, and proteins get properly broken down to very tiny little micro components, which are much more easy to digest and absorb. All right?
Many people with leaky gut don’t have sufficient digestive enzymes, therefore they don’t break food down to very tiny components. Okay? For example, sugars may not be busted right down to small bonds, they could still be long chains or links, which allow bacteria to thrive and feed on. All right?
And also, these links or bonds are too big to pass through cells so they basically get passed out through the bowel, so you’re not really absorbing everything you need. And it’s the same with fat. And it’s the same with amino acids, when it comes to the breakdown of proteins, you need to have very small amino acid breakdown facilitated by healthy digestive enzyme production, which many people lack. So just to get you started, enzymes suit that purpose.
To me, it’s a little bit like you get in your car in the morning and you put the key in… And then you’ve got to get on the phone and ring up the guy and get him out there with a jump jumpstart or kind of thing. So the jump starter are the digestive enzymes, right? That’s how I see it. So when your car battery is flat and you put it on charge and the next morning it starts right away. So enzymes will kickstart that digestive process. All right? And they really form a good part of the protocol to get that leaky gut fixed up. All right? And probiotics and enzymes work excellent together in that respect. So think about a formula that contains the enzyme and probiotic together, that’s going to work well for you.
Can leaky gut, can there be an anxiety component with leaky gut? It’s a question I got from a patient a long time ago, and many other people have asked me this question since. Can leaky gut cause anxiety?
So lots of people who do my quiz, they list this as one of their biggest frustrations with leaky gut, is having this anxiety problem. Okay. I’ve also noticed that many patients I particularly saw over the years with leaky gut were taking antidepressants. Not a great idea.
Leaky gut, if it gets really bad, can predispose you to a whole lot of mental health issues, especially depression and anxiety. I’ve seen this so many times with people because they’re not really getting the nutrition that the cells of the body need. There’s a huge connection, as we’ve already learned, between the gut, especially the small intestine, and different parts of the brain. And one of the key things that links everything up also is the vagus nerve, a large parasympathetic nerve that connects up different parts of our brain with our gut. So whatever affects our gut is going to affect our brain, and whatever affect our brain affects our gut. It’s a two-way street, okay?
In time, I think in a hundred years from now, there’ll be a lot of attention paid to the small intestine, when it comes particularly to mental health. Now, people are looking in the wrong place. They’re looking up here, whereas in fact, they should be looking down there, right? Because this brain down here has more of an effect on how people feel, okay?
He hasn’t got the guts for it. He’s gutless. Lots of sayings have sprung up around the digestive health in terms of the mental well-being of the person. It’s paramount to get that membrane of the small intestine in really good shape. That will then ensure that your body gets the nutrition it needs to fully power up, and to give it the vitality and health that you so long, that you’re looking for.
So if you look at my playlist on leaky gut, we’ve spoken many times about leaky gut in terms of the triggers, the causes, the things that people do that exacerbates a leaky gut, that makes it bad. And also things that you can do to fix up that leaky gut. It’s not hard to fix leaky gut, but it takes time. It won’t happen like a car, putting another alternator in a car and it’s fixed. It doesn’t work like that, okay? The body can take weeks and months, and even years, to heal. It’s a slow process. But when it does, as you pick up along the way, it will inspire you and motivate you to get healthier and healthier, to a point where you’ve got no more leaky gut. You’ve got no more anxiety. And you’ve got very little depression, if any, okay?
Look at people that are happy, who haven’t got anxiety, who haven’t got depression, who feel really good about their life. Generally don’t find them to have a bad leaky gut problem, right? Also, their habits will be more in line with that degree of happiness that they have. Their health habits, in terms of what they eat, how they sleep, and how they relate to other people.
There’s a lot more to leaky gut. I would probably more be inclined to call it a leaky life. Something’s leaking out of your life.
Now, here’s an interesting question. Is there a link between leaky gut and postnasal drip? When you’ve got postnasal drip, it’s a pain in the butt. I don’t know if you guys have ever had it, but I had it for probably a couple of years when I had a candida problem. I was always sniffing and there was stuff coming into the back of the throat and occasionally, I get facial pain. It would swell up and I think I’ve written articles on this and I talk about the AFS, the allergic fungal sinusitis and different types of reasons why you can get postnasal drip. Something interesting I’ve found that some people have, but I’ve not really sort of found this online is, some people can get sort of dysfunctional pancreatic problem. Meaning they could be maybe chowing down on too many carbs or soda drinks or I don’t know what people eat, but it tends to produce just too much mucus in the throat, in the back of the throat, but also in the nose.
So I found that with many people have told me that after bingeing on pizzas or too much bread or lots of donuts or things like that, they wake up in the morning and they’re all blocked up and they’re all clogged up. And because there’s too much mucus production because people aren’t breaking those carbs down sufficiently. This is quite common and this can stimulate the postnasal drip because infection can set in. Wherever you’ve got too much mucus, it’s a breeding ground for bacteria. And also yeasts. Yeasts can thrive in that mucon-rich environment, as well. And that can cause massive facial pain, postnasal drip and all kinds of problems. Digestive enzymes help people a lot with postnasal drip, so that could be something you could be looking at. CanXida Restore, which I make, containing enzymes and probiotics is a really nice product for postnasal drip. This one here.
So remember, if there’s gunge and problems up here, of course it’s going to affect stuff down there. Okay. Whatever happens high up affects stuff lower down, it’s called, I think it’s called gravity. I don’t know what you call it in the body, but it just makes sense for me. So many people who’ve got issues with too much mucus, especially ear, nose, or throat problems, can eventually start really affecting that gut because they’re swallowing and they’re coughing and they’re not chewing properly and so you’re going to get all sorts of dysfunctions occurring there. I really would see there being a link between those two things.
So, but how do you break that link? What do you do about it? Well, you need to find the cause for this if you’ve got postnasal drip, okay. There’s a chance that you could have a fungal problem in there, in the maxillary sinus, in the ethmoid sinus or… Because the face is quite hollow. And it’s a really good breeding ground for all kinds of bugs in those sinus cavities. I’ve spoken also, many times, about the need for excellent dental health. I spent a lot of time at the dentist the last 18 months. Lots of pain, expense, inconvenience, because I wanted really get my teeth fixed up, because I’m a baby boomer and growing up, teeth were just ripped out. Mercury fillings were placed all over the place. There was no real concern about the link between gum disease and health. It’s one of the best kept secrets, is having outstanding dental health because it really, really will make sure that it’s much harder for viruses, bacteria and fungi to penetrate inside that sinus cavity creating this postnasal drip. You really don’t want a post-nasal problem. You want to be able to smell and breathe and have that clear passage of air coming through, uninterrupted. So the link is definitely there. In my opinion, there will be a link. If you keep messing up the sinuses, eventually you’ll mess up the gum.
So, yeah, I’ve just noticed here that many people write about this in our quiz too, that they get a postnasal drip problem. One of the biggest problems. So if you’ve got this problem, first thing you do with postnasal drip is you stop all dairy products. No cow’s milk, no cheese, butter’s fine. Okay? Second thing is you got to take out all of the sugar out of the diet as much as you can. I would take honey out, I would take Stevia out or take molasses out. I would take everything that’s sweet out of the diet with postnasal drip, really important. And would recommend you go more into fresh vegetables and salads and lean meats and tons of this stuff, lots of that. And you’ll find slowly over time, you’ll get on top. Especially intelligent if you did a stool assessment or a gut assessment working through a functional practitioner, to see what’s going on in here, how leaky the gut is, what the bacteria levels like, the imbalances. Get that fixed or at least get it assessed while you’re working on this. And if you do both of those things, boom, your problem will go away. And it worked for me and it works for a lot of my patients. Think about it.
But thanks for coming back to my regulars, and if you’re not a subscriber, then it’d be cool if you were. Now, what have we got? What to do if your doctor says the only way to get relief from your gut problems is by way of a colectomy or ileostomy? So these are operations basically chopping up bits of bowel, connecting stuff up again. Doctors like operations. Many doctors have friends that are surgeons, and many surgeons have friends that are doctors. They’re drinking buddies. They’re golfing buddies. They’re all kinds of buddies. I’ve been in the medical game a long time now. I know many, many medical professionals, and I speak in very high regard of doctors and surgeons, because nearly all of them I know are fantastic people doing an incredible job. Even today with COVID, and a lot of people putting their neck on the line, it’s incredible.
So, I’m not here to bash doctors or to malign them or to say that the profession sucks, because it doesn’t. We seriously need good surgeons and there are many good ones out there. However, on the flip side, there are a lot of dodgy ones too, if you know what I mean, that will sort of get together with friends around men’s clubs and things like this. And, “Hey buddy, I got this patient.” Well, I could be speaking in Portuguese, but I’m just using an American accent, “And this woman’s got a damn bowel problem. Can you sort it out for me and maybe do some plumbing or something?” “Yeah, man, I can do that.” “Cool.”
So, a lot of bouncing around happens between doctors and surgeons. Now I’m not saying this in a bad way, because mechanics will send your car to an auto electrician or to the guy who does the tires, or to the guy who does the spray painting. So there is a lot of bouncing around the business. But some doctors are not really on the level, if you know what I mean. They’ll quickly refer a patient very quickly to a surgeon for an operation.
Now, we were talking about is there a need for these operations? There absolutely is a need. But I can tell you something, I’ve had patients, I swear I’ve had patients several times that had operations that did not need those operations. It was done prematurely with haste. They’re pushed through a system. It was unrequired.
So, the first thing you need to do before any kind of an operation like this is to work out the importance of having this operation, and look at the kind of symptoms you’ve got, and how your quality of life is affected. But I urge, urge, urge you to do the GI360. Let me write it down for you, because you might not understand me talking. Lots of people can’t. They say I mumble. So I’ll make it simple for you, if I can find a pen that works. So the GI, I. There. Can you see that? GI360. Then the company, Doctors … Man, you wouldn’t believe it. The pen’s running out.
I’ve said many times on this channel, Doctor’s Data. That’s the lab. That test by that lab. Now that’s mandatory. Don’t even argue, just do the test. If you’ve been told you need that operation, you’d have to do that test straight away. Immediately get a stool sample sent off to Doctor’s Data, because you want to know what the hell’s going on inside your gut.
I’ve had many patients like this. I spoke about a lady, a very frail lady that was brought to me in her 60s, that weighed, I think our family dog weighed twice as much as this woman. And her medical file was literally 12 inches thick. And at the end of the file, the last entry from the British doctor was that, “We couldn’t find any real cause for Mrs. XYZ’s disease.” And for her to put on weight, the doctor also added a note for the woman to eat more potato chips and more chocolate to gain weight. Isn’t it really great sensible nutritional advice for a medical professional? Chocolate and chips to gain weight.
Well, when we got the stool test report back for this woman, the bowel was full of candida. She had a very high candida count, and she was ready to go for bowel surgery. I think it was a colectomy. So, you’ve got to be careful. You could have a serious massive infection in the gut. There could be C. diff, there could be candida, there could be klebsiella. You could have a massive big SIBO problem and a colon problem. But if it’s tested carefully with a stool test, and then you work with someone who can take you down a route where you can clean the gut up of these pathogens, of these imbalances, you may not need the operation.
I had a patient in England who’s had the operation done. He’s only a male in his 30s. A lovely male. Now, this poor man, years prior, got multiple rounds of antibiotics which screwed up his gut, and the bacteria just went through the roof. And of course, he got more and more bowel problem, and eventually they just cut a piece off the bowel and they opened it up. It’s not the way to do it.
One of the most common gut operations in America in the 1900s, turn of the century, I think it was between 1895 and about 1905, was to take about 12 inches off the colon because it improved constipation. Now you may laugh, but you go and Google it. Okay? It was a common operation. People were opened up, they took a foot off the bowel, they sewed them up again, and then, of course, they didn’t have a constipation problem. Now they’re pooping like ducks all of a sudden. They went from one extreme to the other.
In my opinion, for where I’m sitting, people don’t need gut operations. They need properly sorting out. The cause needs addressing. They need fixing up. Even my father-in-law had to have bowel operation surgery. I’ve been with my wife now for 34 years, but when I first met this guy, his favorite meal, guess what it was. Lots and lots of pork fat. Heaps of pork fat. So when you live like that, you’re going to ruin your gut. And then, of course, you know you’re going to get heartburn. So, this guy had all these bottles of antacids all lined up on a shelf. What he needed was a diet makeover. Remember we spoke about stuff up here? Emotional stuff drives people into eat, and then the eat causes the gut problem.
So the problem usually starts up here somewhere, and then it ends up in the bowel. So, just be careful because you may not need that colectomy or ileostomy. You may not need it. If you’ve got inflammatory bowel disease and you’re staring down the barrel of a gut operation, for God sakes, get that stool test done. It could save you a lot of misery. I had a 27 year old female patient with a bag. Also, antibiotic-induced damage, and they ended up taking her colon out. It’s not necessary. If things are fixed up here, they don’t become a problem there. I mean, how easy could it be? Thanks for tuning in.