Is the Gut the Gateway to Disease? | Yousef Elyaman | TEDxOcala
Summary
TLDRIn this video, a doctor turned functional medicine practitioner emphasizes the importance of addressing the root cause of diseases, often linked to gut health. The speaker shares three patient stories—Bill with heart disease, Sally with thyroid issues, and Martha with restless leg syndrome—all of which were traced back to gut problems. By applying functional medicine principles, including dietary changes and stress management, the patients experienced significant health improvements, highlighting the gut's role as both a gateway to disease and a path to healing.
Takeaways
- 👨⚕️ The speaker, a doctor, became frustrated with traditional medicine's symptom-based treatment and turned to functional medicine to find root causes of diseases.
- 🌱 Functional medicine focuses on identifying and treating the root cause of diseases, rather than just managing symptoms.
- 🌳 The concept of functional medicine is likened to a tree, where the branches and leaves are symptoms, and the roots are the underlying causes of diseases.
- 🔍 The doctor emphasizes that many diseases start in the gut, which is a central theme in the script.
- 🤔 The script introduces three patients, Bill, Sally, and Martha, each with different diagnoses, but all linked back to gut issues.
- 💊 Bill's heart disease was traced back to long-term use of acid blockers, which can lead to cardiovascular issues.
- 🌾 Sally's thyroid disease was connected to a diet high in processed foods and gluten, causing 'leaky gut' and molecular mimicry.
- 🍼 Martha's restless leg syndrome was linked to being bottle-fed, leading to an imbalance in gut bacteria and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
- 🍽️ The doctor uses dietary changes, stress management, and other lifestyle interventions as part of the treatment plans for these patients.
- 🌟 The script concludes that the gut is not only the gateway to disease but also to healing and health.
Q & A
What was the speaker's initial frustration with traditional medical practice?
-The speaker was frustrated because they were only listening to symptoms and prescribing medication for those symptoms or doing tests and prescribing medication based on test results, but their patients sometimes didn't feel better or even felt worse.
What is functional medicine according to the speaker?
-Functional medicine is described as 'root cause medicine', focusing on identifying and addressing the underlying causes of disease rather than just treating symptoms.
Why did the speaker become interested in functional medicine?
-The speaker became interested in functional medicine after realizing that traditional methods were not effectively addressing the root causes of their patients' health issues and that disease often starts in the gut.
What is the significance of the gut in the context of disease according to the speaker?
-The gut is considered the gateway to disease because many health issues can be traced back to gut-related problems such as indigestion, acid blockers' side effects, and imbalances in gut bacteria.
How did Bill's use of acid blockers contribute to his heart disease?
-Bill's use of acid blockers led to a decrease in stomach acid, which is necessary to kill bacteria and viruses, activate vitamins and minerals, and aid digestion. Blocking acid can increase a blood level called ADMA, making blood vessels less pliable and contributing to cardiovascular disease.
What is 'leaky gut' and how is it related to Sally's thyroid disease?
-Leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability, is a condition where the intestinal wall allows large particles to leak into the bloodstream. This can lead to the immune system attacking these particles. In Sally's case, gluten leaking into her bloodstream caused her body to produce antibodies that also attacked her thyroid gland, leading to thyroid disease.
What is molecular mimicry and how does it relate to Sally's condition?
-Molecular mimicry occurs when a molecule from food, like gluten, resembles a part of the body, like the thyroid gland. The immune system, trying to attack the foreign molecule, mistakenly attacks the similar body part, causing autoimmune reactions like thyroid disease.
How did Martha's diagnosis of restless leg syndrome relate to her gut health?
-Martha's restless leg syndrome was linked to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which can be caused by imbalances in gut bacteria. Specific strains of bacteria can produce toxins that irritate nerves, leading to symptoms like restless leg syndrome.
What is the role of stress management, sleep hygiene, and exercise in treating patients with gut-related diseases?
-Stress management, sleep hygiene, and exercise are integral parts of a functional medicine approach. They help address factors that can influence gut health and overall well-being, contributing to the healing process.
How did the speaker's approach to treating Bill, Sally, and Martha differ from their initial diagnoses?
-The speaker used a functional medicine approach to identify the root causes of their conditions in the gut and addressed those, rather than just treating the symptoms or diagnoses given by conventional medicine.
What is the significance of the tree analogy used by the speaker?
-The tree analogy is used to illustrate that just as a tree's health depends on its roots, human health depends on addressing the root causes, which in many cases start in the gut.
Outlines
👨⚕️ Journey to Functional Medicine
The speaker, a medical doctor, narrates their journey from traditional medical practice to functional medicine. Initially frustrated with the symptomatic treatment approach, they discovered functional medicine through a workshop. They learned two key principles: finding the root cause of disease and understanding that many diseases originate in the gut. The speaker's practice shifted towards applying these principles, focusing on root cause medicine. They use the analogy of a tree to explain the importance of addressing the roots for overall health.
💊 The Hidden Link Between Medications and Gut Health
The speaker discusses the story of Bill, a patient diagnosed with heart disease. Bill's journey began with indigestion, leading to the use of acid blockers. The speaker explains how blocking stomach acid can have negative effects, such as increasing ADMA levels, which can contribute to cardiovascular disease. They then describe how a functional medicine approach, including stress management, sleep, and exercise prescriptions, helped Bill address the root cause of his issues, which was related to his diet and acid blocking, leading to improved health.
🌾 The Impact of Diet on Gut Health and Disease
The speaker shares Sally's story, who was diagnosed with thyroid disease. Sally's diet, rich in processed foods and gluten, led to a leaky gut, allowing large particles to enter the bloodstream. This triggered an immune response, leading to molecular mimicry where antibodies against gluten mistakenly attacked the thyroid gland. The functional medicine approach involved identifying and addressing the root causes, such as leaky gut and molecular mimicry, through dietary changes and supplements, which resolved her thyroid issues.
🍼 Early Life Factors and Gut Health
The speaker tells Martha's story, who was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome. Martha was bottle-fed, which can lead to an imbalance of gut bacteria. Repeated antibiotic use due to infections further disrupted her gut microbiome, leading to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). This overgrowth produced toxins that irritated nerves, causing her symptoms. Using functional medicine tools, Martha was put on a low FODMAP diet, probiotics, and other interventions to address the root cause of her condition, leading to her recovery.
🌟 The Gut: Gateway to Disease and Healing
In the concluding paragraph, the speaker summarizes the three patient stories, emphasizing the gut's role in both disease and healing. They highlight how dietary choices significantly influenced the patients' health issues and their recovery. The speaker reiterates the importance of functional medicine in identifying and addressing the root causes of diseases, which often lie in the gut.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Functional Medicine
💡Root Cause
💡Gut Health
💡Acid Blockers
💡Leaky Gut
💡Molecular Mimicry
💡Stress Management
💡Sleep Hygiene
💡Exercise Prescription
💡Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
💡Low FODMAP Diet
Highlights
The doctor's journey from traditional medicine to functional medicine.
The importance of addressing the root cause of disease.
The concept that disease often starts in the gut.
The realization that traditional medical education often overlooks the gut's role in health.
How functional medicine principles led to improved patient outcomes.
The analogy of a tree to explain the importance of the gut in overall health.
The story of Bill, diagnosed with heart disease, and the connection to gut health.
The role of acid blockers in creating cardiovascular issues.
The impact of diet on heart disease and the functional medicine approach to treatment.
Sally's story of thyroid disease linked to gut health.
The concept of 'leaky gut' or increased intestinal permeability.
Molecular mimicry and its role in autoimmune diseases.
Martha's diagnosis of restless leg syndrome and its root cause in gut health.
The role of antibiotics and poor diet in creating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
How a low FODMAP diet and probiotics helped Martha overcome restless leg syndrome.
The overarching message that the gut is the gateway to both disease and healing.
The conclusion that food plays a significant role in both illness and the healing process.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
let's start with a question is the gut
the gateway to
disease for as long as I could remember
I wanted to be a doctor I went to
medical school I went to residency I
opened up my own practice I started
seeing patience and I got
frustrated I realized that all I was
doing was listening to symptoms and
giving medication for those symptoms or
I was doing tests and based on those
test results giving medication and
sometimes people didn't feel better they
actually felt worse and I realized there
had to be a better way there had to be a
better way of doing it so I started to
research and I I continued to look for
different ways that I could help my
patients and I came across the term
functional
medicine and it interested me so I ended
up going to a workshop in this concept
of functional medicine and I thoroughly
enjoyed it I want to share with you just
two principles that I learned from that
Workshop the
first disee the first you should always
go to the root cause of disease go back
to the basics look for the root cause
and the second was disease usually
starts in the gut now this may seem
simple this may seem intuitive you may
think hey why the heck didn't you know
this well I'll tell you the truth that's
not how we were taught so I started
using these principles with my patients
and they started to get better so I
figured I need to look deeper into this
functional medicine thing and I did I
ended up certifying in functional
medicine and the whole focus of the
practice was changed towards the the
principles of functional medicine so
what is functional medicine whenever I
say functional medicine I want you guys
to think root cause medicine I say
functional medicine in your minds think
root cause medicine another example of
functional medicine is a tree when you
look at a tree what do you see you see
the branches you see the leaves you
don't see the roots underneath the tree
but the truth is in order to have a
healthy tree you have to have healthy
roots and the same goes for the human
body if you want a healthy body we have
to go to the root we have to get to the
root cause and that's what functional
medicine
is I'd like to take you on a journey to
three different doctor's offices at
three different times for three
different patients that have just been
given three different
diagnosis our first patient is Bill Bill
is a 48-year-old white male he's been
getting chest pain off and on he sits in
front of his doctor after this long
workup who looks at him and explains to
him bill you have heart disease and he
puts him on four medication our second
patient is Sally Sally's a 60-year-old
Hispanic female who's been getting tired
who's been gaining weight and after her
workup her provider her doctor explains
to her Sally you have thyroid disease
and our third patient is Martha Martha
is a 31-year-old black female who every
time she goes to bed her legs feel ansy
she this is causing her not sleep well
this is this is affecting her mood and
her doctor explains to her Martha you
have R's leg syndrome now as the three
of them are driving home as the they
just finished their doctor's office they
just finished their appointment they're
Dr Bill is thinking to him our first
patient is thinking to himself he's
thinking I have a problem with my heart
and as Sally is driving home she's
thinking to herself I have a problem
with my thyroid gland and as Martha is
is driving home she is thinking to
herself I have a disease in the nerves
of my legs and all of that is partially
true but what her doctors didn't tell
her and what her providers probably
didn't even know was that their problems
were rooted in the gut show of hands who
here feels fatigue
often who here feels pain
often who who here has either been
diagnosed with a chronic disease or has
a loved one diagnosed with a chronic
disease if you've raised your hand there
is a good chance that the problem is in
the
gut
let's get back to our three patients our
first patient remember Bill our
48-year-old white male that was
diagnosed with heart disease let's see
what happened to his gut well years
before his diagnosis of heart disease
Bill ended up getting some indigestion
so he went to the pharmacy he got an an
acid and he started taking this an acid
which made him a little bit better but
then he got a little bit worse and it
didn't fully go away so what did he do
he went to his doctor and his doctor
prescribed him a prescription acid
blocker a strong acid blocker and it did
the job he started taking it and he felt
no more indigestion no more heart
heartburn and two years later or I'm
sorry two months later he realized that
he still had the the or he was still on
the medication so he's thinking I need
to get off this medicine so he tries to
stop it and he ends up with more pain
than when he first started so he he ends
up going back on the pill and that would
be okay if the pill was completely safe
right it may cost him a little bit but
at the end of the day what is does it
does it really matter if if the pain is
gone the truth is you need acid so you
don't want want to indefinitely block
acid you need acid to kill any bacteria
that are making their way into your
track and viruses you need acid to
activate activate vitamins and to
activate minerals you need acid to help
digest your food there's a reason we
have acid in our stomach and that's not
all if you don't if you block acid the
way he did if you take the acid blocker
and block it what happens there is a
level in the blood called adma that goes
up and when that level up your blood
vessels are less pliable they can't move
as well and that coupled with poor
dietary choices can lead to packing and
clogging of the blood vessels which
leads to the diagnosis of cardiovascular
disease and that's what happened to Bill
so what did we do with Bill well using a
functional medicine plan we were able to
put him on a Stress Management
prescription a sleep prescription and an
exercise
prescription now he was D diagnosed with
cardiovascular disease but using the
functional medicine approach and using
functional medicine tools it became
apparent that his problem wasn't rooted
in the heart his problem was he was
eating foods that were bothering him and
causing indigestion and he was blocking
acid which was causing more problems so
using that and with that information we
were able to put him on an Elimination
Diet and figure out what foods were
actually bothering in the first place we
able to get him off his his heartburn
medication and we were able to and we
were able to put him on a heart healthy
diet and now because he had the
diagnosis he was listening a little bit
more and he was more compliant and he's
now chest painfree let's look at our
second patient Sally let's see what
happened in her gut well Sally ate lots
of processed foods it was a major part
of her diet did you know that over 68%
of American diet consists of processed
foods did you know that well she was one
of those she was she was definitely
following that statistic and she also
ate a lot of wheat products and wheat
wheat products have a protein in in in
in wheat called gluten and what happens
is if you and if you eat lots of
processed foods and if you consume a lot
of gluten you can end up with something
leaky gut now listen I have a reputation
so don't go say Dr ellman say
leaky gut because if you go you can talk
to your family but if you go start
talking to your conventional doctor
they're going to think I'm a quack
they're going to think you're crazy
might as well just put aluminum foil on
your head and just and move on what you
have to say is increased intestinal
pability because that's a scientific
term and that's where the research is at
increased intestinal pability what is
that if you look well quit saying leaky
gut I just said don't say leaky gut so
if you if you look at the intestinal
wall the intestinal wall if you look at
the cells they're very tightly stuck
together like in this picture and the
reason is is we don't want large
particles to leak into the bloodstream
because when they do the body thinks
it's under attack and it tries to attack
those large particles you're supposed to
fully digest your food before it makes
its way into your bloodstream but what
happens for various reasons including
two things that Martha had which was she
was eating processed foods and she was
eating gluten which can increase zonulin
levels which can cause increased
intestinal permability or top secret
leaky gut what happens is it opens up
and now large particles leak into the
bloodstream including gluten and then
gluten is floating around and the body's
like what is this what do I do with this
and then something else happens it's
called molecular
mimicry
and molecular mimickry and I for effect
I clicked it three times for it to go
once because I just wanted to really
focus on this point what is molecular
mimicry molecular mimicry if you I want
you guys to imagine that you have a twin
the twin looks exactly like you it's
identical twin you guys wear the same
hat you guys look so cute cuz you guys
go everywhere all the time looking
exactly the same and then your twin does
what irritating siblings some once in a
while do your twin goes and commits a
crime
so unfortunately this twin isn't really
the brightest to the two of you and the
twin doesn't wear a mask and they have
video footage I it's a big mess they
have video footage of the crime they
have DNA evidence I don't know what if
what your twin was doing pulling hair
out or whatever but they have the
evidence sitting there and the police go
start looking after this look looking
after the perpetrator of the crime right
they find you you look the same you have
the same DNA and guess what they do they
go after you they put you in jail well
guess what the thyroid gland can
sometimes have a twin and it's called
gluten because there's a region on the
thyroid gland that looks very similar to
a region on gluten so what happens is is
you that gluten leaks in your
bloodstream your body makes antibodies
to attack gluten and then it turns
around and it attacks the thyroid gland
so as she eats more as she eats more
gluten more gluten is leaking into the
bloodstream the body's making more
antibodies it's attacking the thyroid
gland even more until it's destroyed to
a point where it can't make enough
thyroid hormone and when it can't make
enough thyroid hormone you end up with a
diagnosis of thyroid disease and that is
what happened to our beloved Sally now
what did we do put her on a personalized
plan which included Stress Management
which included sleep hygiene
prescriptions and which included
exercise prescriptions now remember her
diagnosis she was diagnosed
with
hypothyroidism that's what she thought
this is what I have right but the truth
is and using the principles on
functional medicine we were able to to
realize she had two things leaky gut or
increased intestinal
permeability and she had molecular
mimicry so what be knowing that
information we were able to help with
that leaky gut by giving her an amino
acid called L glutamine stop with those
processed foods stop eating the gluten
and then now the gluten is out of the
bloodstream the body's not making
antibodies anymore and not turning
around and attacking the thyroid gland
and we caught her at an early time so
thankfully she no longer has thyroid
disease she's back at her ideal body
weight and she feels
great our third patient Martha Martha
was our 31-year-old black female that
was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome
what happened with Martha Martha was
bottle-fed I want you guys to realize
not too long ago doctors were saying
it's actually better to bottle feed they
are actually they were recommending
bottle feeding as over breastfeeding but
it turns out you know once you start
going away from
nature things can happen and we find out
the hard way well bottle what happens
when you bottle feed and you're not
getting the protective effect of breast
milk breast milk actually is going to
have antibodies that can kill off bad
bacteria so what happens is is that you
can get an overwhelm of bad bacteria
growing in your gut and guess what you
need good bacteria you need a balance of
bacteria why well because
bacteria regulate your immune system
they help digest your food they are
multiple things that bacteria do as a
matter of fact for every one human cell
we have in our person there are at least
10 bacterial cells we're made up of more
bacteria than people than human right so
she has been she's bottle-fed and she
gets the perfect setup
for sibo so her immune system goes low
and when his her immune system is down
she starts getting infections as a child
so with those infections what does her
mom do take her to the doctor every time
she takes her to the doctor the doctor
gives her an antibiotic every time she
takes an antibiotic it kills off all of
the the bad bacteria but it also kills
good bacteria and eventually that
coupled with poor dietary choices she
ends up with something called sibo or
small intestinal bacterial overgrowth an
overgrowth of all this extra bacteria in
the small intestine a lot of it bad
bacteria and guess what overgrowth of
that bacteria specific strains can
actually create a toxin that leaks into
the bloodstream irritates the nerves and
gives you restless leg syndrome and
that's what happened to Martha so what
did we do for her we we gave her a
Stress Management
prescription we gave her sleep hygiene
prescription we gave her an exercise
prescription and these are all
customized to the person you don't have
somebody that is very logical and and
and Technical I don't sit down and say
close your eyes wooa I'm G to go you you
got
to you got to change it up a bit so I
don't want you to think we're doing the
same thing for everybody but remember
what Her diagnosis was she was diagnosed
with wrestling leg syndrome but because
of functional medicine because we were
able to use the tools of functional
medicine we knew that her real
problem the root cause was small
intestinal bacterial overgrowth so we
put her on a spe specific diet called a
lowfodmap diet we put her on herbs to
kill off some of that bad bacteria we
put her on a good probiotic she is now
restless leg syndrome free and she's now
off all of her
medicines I have just given you three
examples of how three
seemingly completely different diagnoses
all rooted in the gut if you look at
their stories the food they ate played a
huge role in how they got ill and the
food they ate played a huge role in the
healing process we started this journey
with a question is the gut the gateway
to disease and the answer is yes
fortunately it's also the gateway to
healing and to health ladies and
gentlemen God bless your
guts thank you very
[Applause]
much
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