 Hey everyone, this is Dr. Ruscio today. I'm here with Ryan Cornette who has read healthy gut healthy you and had some good results from going through the book protocol and Ryan thanks for being here today and sharing your story. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on Can you tell people a little bit about okay before you read the book? You know had you done paleo or never heard of paleo or had you tried five different diets or? Probably actually tell people kind of the context of before you jumped into the book Yeah, um, honestly, I've been kind of going out this diet thing for almost a decade now I jumped in a nutrition and I felt like I did myself more harm than good You know, I tried I tried all the crazy diets growing up in a health food store working there which eventually led me to a raw vegan diet and My stomach just was not happy with that couldn't digest the food. I ended up moving to Hawaii and I was living on a farm and the only thing that would make my stomach feel better at that time was Incorporating some raw dairy some local eggs and starting to do some meat and some kind of like nurturing nutrients at that point so I Started to incorporate more protein into my diet more animal foods and I started to feel better But I just still had this kind of lackluster digestion. I Was still trying to figure that out at that point I went on the diet fad craze. I tried every diet every book you name it. I've tried it I've been there. I've been an extremist a zealot and they all made me feel a little bit better But I still had that residual kind of gas bloating and digestion moodiness after big meals So at that point I Actually went in and did some testing and I did a stool test gi map and I came back with Giardia actually and The physician that I was working with he thought it could be from the water that I had drank You know being in Hawaii. I lived in Costa Rica as well. So You know I kind of dove in With several different protocols on my own Started working with the physician. He helped me a little bit as well, but you know the thing I really loved about your book dr. Ruchio is that It's a very level-headed approach that you took towards this whole gut microbiome and You really made me feel human again with your book to be honest because I I went through so many protocols I've been doing the every diet Every guru every podcast I could ever listen to forever and your book was the first kind of condensed Format that put it into a simple Step, you know the great Nate plan and it really allowed you to work through it But not only to work through it, but to say hey listen if you're not better at say step three or four you know take a step back and reassess, you know, what's working what's not working and There's two quotes from your book I don't know if I'll say them perfectly, but these these literally changed my life not not just from the physical standpoint But from a psychological standpoint how I addressed this product these protocols Well, there's a lot of quotes that are coming up actually well number one you said stop throwing a Dietary fix at a non dietary issue It's something to that extent and that really resonated with me because I keep I kept bouncing from the gluten-free diet or the You know the low carb diet the high carb diet the no fruits diet the whatever it was And I was kind of getting the same results with all of them And I love the fact that you said hey listen if you've tried all the diets and you're not really seeing a Exponential jump, maybe it's time to try a different approach and maybe that's some of these antimicrobials and Some of the therapies that you discussed in your book. So that was really powerful another thing you said in a book that helped me a lot was Eating to reduce inflammation instead of eating to feed gut bugs And so that helped me a lot because I started to think about You know, maybe a high fiber diet is not what's best for me at this point in time Maybe cutting back on these prebiotics and these high fiber foods I can implement other nutrient-dense foods to cover those bases But you know not feed the gut bugs and the overgrowth that I'm currently working with so that was really powerful and then Another thing that you said in the book was something to the extent of You know, you don't have to be a hundred percent perfect on these diet. That's a key. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes And that was literally like a psychological backpack I took off my shoulders because you know, I was It literally got to one point where I took every single diet and combined it and I was doing a low-fog map paleo Low histamine, you know anything you can name I started to basically stack it up And it got to the point where the only thing that was left on my list was meat and leafy greens and at that point, I'm like, you know What am I doing here? And what how much exponential benefit it's my really getting from this and I Promise you I read that quote from your book and to hear it from someone This is well-educated and research and has as much clinical experience as you for some reason that gave me a Psychological leeway to start to say, hey, you know what? maybe I'm gonna eat these these homemade chips with guacamole and You know, I mean a little gluten and maybe you're caught a little bit of fog map but I'll take extra digestive enzymes or you know and all I'll cut back and you know not overdo it I'll just have a few of those see how I feel and just having that psychological leeway for me was I Felt like I turned a page with that so Man, I mean, there's so much great stuff there I don't even know where to begin. I try to try to address some of those things But I mean what you're saying is is something that I have seen so much Which is why I wrote these things into the tapestry of the book one being Not trying to force a dietary solution to a non dietary problem. Hey and also To have a healthy psychology around this and not you know pigeonhole you into this progressively Restrictive dietary approach and not make you think you're going to do a Reverable harm to yourself if you eat off plan because that that does damage people and I do see that in the clinic And it's just it's great seeing that even When that's not delivered in the face-to-face clinical setting It still carries the amount of weight that it carried before and and then also You know, you can't have worked with a physician and having previously Treated your lab results and this book can still do better than than that and I don't mean to Denigrate any doctors out there, but there are some doctors who are very well intention But if you just treat lab results if you're working with a doctor who is treating your lab results compared to working with this book Which really listens to your responses and evolves a protocol to fit your needs Ironically, the book will be more personalized than a person the person interaction with the clinician in many cases Yes, and I also like that you have it segmented by steps because The last time I worked through one of your I work a great Nate plan. That was probably about Four four or five months ago, and I just went on vacation. I got back my stomach's been a little more sluggish so I've actually been going back to the great Nate plan and I've been working through the protocol again and I felt like this time when I approached it. I had a completely different mindset towards it instead of me being as Rigorous and and being a zealot about doing Every single thing at the exact time now I feel like hey, I know how this plan works for me Maybe this aspect of the plan works this aspect doesn't And so I'm able to implement, you know the steps that really get me back to that place of good digestion And then I work my way off of it And I love it because it's a tool that I now have in my tool belt that I can keep with me anywhere I go and other people that are struggling with digestion. I say hey listen I I'm not going to tell you which diet to do look here's a I love that you built the pyramid and you say Hey kind of work your way up that pyramid if paleo works for you Do it if if eating a gluten-free diet doesn't make a big difference maybe try another Action to see if that works for your digestion And I love that because I was stuck for literally almost ten years in the in the diet phase of that where It's gonna work. Which exactly? Yeah, I'm glad you say a sense that you felt empowered by the protocol Which is exactly and and I address this in the book of course, which is looking at This protocol as a way to learn what works for you And then as part of the the end of the protocol I say now that we've gone through this in a step-by-step sequence and you've learned What aspects really help you and what ones didn't really provide that much relief now when you've regressed You can go back to the tools that were helpful for you just like you have and you don't feel like you're Not participating in your healthcare and you're not empowered and it's just well I've got to go back to the doctor now and this magical person who knows all the stuff that I don't know Tell me what to do you're involved in the process and you understand now what works for your body So just like you said you feel empowered you're able to go back Select a few things out from the protocol that worked well for you And I'm assuming get yourself back to a hundred percent much easier the second time with a few little touch-ups Rather than when you first went through the protocol and you were learning the cell for the first time Yes Yes, yes, so tell us a little bit about the some of the symptoms that you were struggling with first and then you know How did they respond and how are you feeling now? so I mean, I'm 28 years old, but I've been relatively healthy my entire life I started chasing all these guru diets and that's when my digestion started to kind of tank In my early little bit around I come yeah, right exactly so and then at that point You know, I felt like I've been trying to figure out my digestion like it said for almost 10 years But last year I was in Costa Rica and I was teaching English over there I drank a lot of questionable water just kind of travel in throughout Central America and You know symptoms started popping up that I'd never experienced before in my life And actually the first two that really told me something was wrong was anxiety and like depression and insomnia And I had never experienced those before my life generally optimistic up beat and before you had any gut symptoms No, no the gut symptoms came along with that my digestion started kind of like I said It was always hit or miss but it started getting just gassy bloated backed up Inconsistent with bowel movements and at that point I noticed the symptoms correlated with my indigestion and the symptoms got worse it got to the point where I had to fly home from Costa Rica to go see Like a Western doctor because I was just down and out. I was lose weight. I was like I said anxious I have just Overall, yeah, which is just a quick you know, I want to echo that for people because The the gut symptoms are pretty apparent to most people gas bloating. I'm done with paying constipation area And more people are becoming privy to but it's worth just expounding upon the fact that those symptoms can directly correlate with insomnia fatigue depression and anxiety, so You know, if you're going on the internet and reading about oh serotonin and depression and you know, Sammy and caffeine Okay, maybe there's a time and a place But don't overlook the foundational piece of your gut health if you're trying to improve your brain health and it's okay, so so you're you're grappling with these symptoms and You know what what happens next you then then you pick up a copy of the book and you start going through the protocol and and Yeah, yeah, I basically Basically hit the internet. I've always been passionate about nutrition, but I hit the internet like a madman I went I read every book When I said I read a lot of books and I listen to every podcast every YouTube video everyone I could and a lot of people spoke highly of your work So I was kind of I actually was waiting for your book So I worked through a couple other protocols prior to your book coming out and I Felt like I was willy-nilly. I was all over the place every everything I heard on a podcast I would throw it at my stomach. I there was no Consolidated plan so when I go stick to stick to stick kind of thing, right exactly exactly like you know with one It was all biofilms with the next one It was digestive enzymes, but no one really put everything together into a step-by-step plan to say hey listen If you're good at step 3 stay here for a while and see how you feel ever it was kind of like Throw everything at the dartboard see what sticks and you have no idea which one worked and having also the appropriate sequence because there are some things that should be done before other things and That can be one of the problems when people experiment haphazardly is it's not necessarily that that my book contains any Magical supplement that no one else has But it's a process it's it's kind of fine these into the appropriate sequence So as to allow healing and that's it's one of the quotes in the book also Which is there's no magic protocol or there's no there's no magic product, but there is you know I'm a very helpful process and I think that's kind of what you learned and you didn't even just use the gurus You also went to a doctor and so what happened with the doctor? Did he use some kind of antibiotic or antiparasitic agent and he was he was great I kind of ran out of funds honestly, and I just I did a lot of testing. I did Adrenal panel. I did thyroid panel. I did neuro transmitters I did all different panels and I kind of ran out of financial stability at that point and it got to the point where I Just I couldn't I couldn't do it anymore So I came across your book and your book was kind of the user's guide to Implement these things and you you laid it out with meta-analysis. So I said, you know what? Let's give it a shot and that's when It's another good point that you make which is sometimes people think that you need testing in order to get healthy and Another concept I I address head on in the book which is yes There there can be a time and a place for testing But I mean what a great example you are where you had all this testing yet You didn't really treat any of those results what you did was a logical Algorithmic protocol and that's what got you well absent of needing any testing this year that process. So, you know I think that's really worth Emphasizing for people who are thinking, you know, I'm feeling unwell. I'll do anything. We need this data We need this testing. I'll spend all the money I need to but but you don't necessarily have to right I get that people will spend the money but for The cost of maybe three tests you could do probably most if not all of this protocol. Yeah, right So that's a awesome awesome point Anything else that you think is really important to yeah Yeah, actually something that I just wanted to take my hat off to and the book is that You you're you're you cite meta-analyses and you say I highly recommend that you Incorporate this aspect based on a consensus of data and that's great that you make these suggestions But you will also go even further to say but listen if you've tried This aspect of the protocol and it doesn't work specifically for you Maybe don't implement that and I have a personal story for that is You you state clear evidence that using Probiotics in conjunction with antibiotics shows more efficacious outcomes for remedying gut problems In in my situation, I've noticed that I actually do better when I do the Antimicrobials on the front end and I come in after the antimicrobial therapies and then I start to introduce some of the The soil-based organisms the saccharomyces blarty and then eventually the lactobiphydo me personally if I throw down a 50 billion hundred billion 300 billion lactobiphydo while I'm doing the kind of the cleaning phase I get backed up in a little big assy and then I sit there thinking to myself Is there something wrong with me wait his protocol says you have to do this But then I read through the book and it says no if this doesn't work for you then Didn't skip that step another quote from the book one of the most powerful powerful things you can do to improve your health is learning to listen to your body and and Literally, it sounds terrible, but I've chased so many guru diets that I felt like this was one of the first books That gave me my power back honestly well said well said Yeah, well, I think I think that's the quote of the interview right there Because this is that you know, I really wanted to write the book to give people their power back and not make you feel dependent upon Supplements or protocols or diets. So I mean that makes me feel Awesome and and I can't thank you enough for it for taking the time to to share your story Inclose anything that you want to leave people with Like I said, I've never spoken with dr. Roush. Yeah, my entire life. I've got no affiliation here I I have spent so much of my 20s Sitting in my room reading books watching YouTube videos listening to podcasts trying to be my own doctor I've tried pretty much every guru diet doctor Protocol that's out there. This is a great protocol guys if you want something that's effective It's got a step-by-step guide. It's honest It it's based in science and meta-analyses and peer-reviewed literature This is a great protocol and you know for the price of a book You can try it out before you go to see a functional medicine doctor and spin arm and a leg just to get the results back That tell you to work through this protocol. So Well, couldn't have said it better myself Hey, I'm I'm so happy that you're feeling better I've been on the other side of feeling well and feeling ill and I know how much it sucks to feel ill and how Great it feels to feel well. So, you know, congratulations to you I'm super happy for you. Thank you again for sharing your story. Thank you