 It's great to see you again. Thank you, Doug. Thanks so much. I'm excited to see you again. So I'm dying to know what changes you followed through on and how you're feeling now. But first, I want to get listeners up to speed. Tell us the symptoms you were experiencing. Okay. I have to start saying that I was feeling bad for three years. So it's not just eight months. It was three years of going with different doctors. I went with seven different doctors. I felt so bloated. I had to be like even like open my jeans because it was like so uncomfortable. I would feel so dizzy. I would feel weak, no energy. I was really worried about eating anything because I thought I was going to be like really bad. When I was feeling really bad and I had a relapse, I would be bad for maybe like two or three days and nothing would make me feel better. So it was really a nightmare. I thank God every day that I found you because you really got into the point. That's how you say it. You found out what I had and you gave me the solution and now I can eat whatever I want. Of course, I did some changes when you told me to, but right now I am the person that I used to be before three years ago. So I can eat everything. I'm not bloated anymore. I have energy. I feel healthy and it's been amazing. So thank you so, so much. Well, thank you and you look fantastic. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. It's because of you. All right. So the last time we met, we reviewed your blood work. Yeah. And let's just say it was less than stellar. It wasn't very good. It wasn't very good. But it's not your fault. You had intestinal permeability or leaky gut and your vitamin D level was in the basement. It was 23. Now, yeah. I personally like vitamin D levels of 100 to 150 and yours was 23. Yeah. You remember you told me, why aren't you dead? Yeah. I don't know, Doc. So, and we went through a lot of other things. What was going through your mind when we were reading your results? Well, the first time I thought it was, you're probably right because I never lay down in the sun. I never get any sun because I'm scared about dark spots. So maybe that's why my vitamin D goes so low. And I never, ever thought that that was going to be a reason for me to have my walls so thin. So of course, I did that change. So you've been good about that. Oh, so much made a huge change in my life. I changed my diet for many months. I removed my egg whites that I loved so much. I didn't have so much crap that I loved. That was a huge thing for me, Doc. Well, let's talk about that. Yeah. We did this test called the wheat zoomer test. Yeah. And that's a test that looks for leaky gut, but it also looks as whether you have antibodies to the various proteins in wheat, rye, and barley. Kind of allergic, right to that. Yeah. It's actually not an allergy. It's a sensitivity. But what literally was occurring is that anytime you ate wheat, rye, or barley, or oats, your immune system said, Oh my gosh, we're under attack. And these are evil and they're foreign. And there's a wanted poster in the post office. And we're going to shoot those guys. And it causes inflammation. Yeah. And that was, you'd manifest that with your belly blowing up or just feeling awful. Yeah. So when I asked you to start cutting these things out, and we'll take them one by one, how did you feel about doing that? Because most of us love breads and crackers and cookies. Yeah. Because you know that you think that everything with whole grains is going to be better for you. And it's not. It's actually worse. And that I used to go with like the whole grain bread and with the oatmeal and like so many things that wasn't really helping me. I remember I once went to Universal Studios, and I had this huge mushroom, a creamy soup that it was so good. But I was bad like for three days. It was maybe like so much lactose and cream and the mushrooms like so many things that just like put me so bloated and uncomfortable and I couldn't even slept. So it was really, really bad. And now I know what foods I need to have, what foods are not good for me. And it's been a huge change for me in my life. And I don't suffer anymore, you know? Yeah. And most people don't know that if they're having a soup in a restaurant that almost all soups have gluten in them as a thickener. And so even a healthy mushroom soup might get you or most people into trouble because of the gluten. Now you brought up a cream and you may remember that you reacted to almost all forms of dairy and that even quote healthy dairy like goat's cheese or sheep cheese wasn't very good for you. I know. How did, how'd that feel given that up for a while? At that time it was hard because I love cheese. I love milk. I love everything that has dairy. But I had to do like so many changes at the time. I went like with coconut milk, with like sometimes almond. I remember you always say that it's better than coconut milk than the the almond. Yeah, but like I switched it a little bit. But then I started like feeling so much better. Then I just came back to everything like little by little and right now I have to say that I can eat whatever I want and I feel amazing. Well, you bring up a really good point. What I do like you is I say, look, here's your troublemakers right now. Yeah. And let's get those out of you as much as possible. Yeah. Let's fortify the wall of your gut. And then what we found with my patients is your immune system gets retrained that it doesn't hate these things anymore. And so a lot, most of my patients like nine months into it, maybe a year, we can reintroduce these troublemakers and now you can tolerate them. And that's kind of the carrot on the stick I hold out from my patients. That is amazing. Does that mean that my walls in my intestine are already like thicker and I can stand those foods again? Exactly. And also the other thing that kind of goes along with that that I talk about in gut check is we've given your microbiome, your bacteria, a lot of foods that they like to eat and they reinforce their ability to protect you from the foods that you eat. And they also teach our immune system, our white blood cells, that they don't have to be so anxious and on guard anymore. So it's a one-two punch. I have one question. I remember once that I had a very big relapse. I wrote you on Instagram, what should I take? And I remember you sent me a Biocomplete 3 and that was a huge thing for me. What did that supplement help me? I'm sorry I'm interviewing you again now, but I have to do this question. Well, you know, Biocomplete 3 is kind of a a three-prong attack. So it's got probiotics, friendly bacteria. It's got prebiotics that friendly bacteria need to eat. And it's got nano-encapsulated butyrate. And butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that, believe it or not, the lining of our large intestine, our colon, those cells, 80% of all the energy requirement they have is only met by butyrate and not by blood flow, believe it or not. They have to have butyrate to survive. And getting butyrate down to where it needs to be is really one of the breakthroughs that makes Biocomplete 3 so popular. And you noticed it really right away. It was my solution, I have to say. And so it really does work and there's actually really good science behind why it works. Yeah, every time someone asks me, like, what did you do? I always recommend that. It's called a supplement, right? Yeah. Because it really changed my life and I loved it. I love it. Well, right. If you remember, we told you that you reacted to a type of lectin in spinach that's called an aquaporin. And I talk about it in gut check for the first time. Did you give up spinach for a while? Oh, totally, yes. Yes, I did. Was it a big part of your diet? Not really. I didn't miss them at all. You didn't have a spinach salad every day? Not really, no. I go with romaine or something else. Yeah, okay. Unfortunately, one of the revelations that I've known for a long time, but I haven't dared write about it, is that there's a class of lectins called aquaporins. And they're present in, unfortunately, spinach. They're present in corn. They're present in soybeans. They're present in white potatoes. They're present in tobacco and tomatoes and peppers. And these little troublemakers, if you're sensitive to them, can really cause leaky gut. They can cause leaky brain. And interestingly enough, they can damage the coating of our nerves called the myelin sheath. When we went through all this, and we took several other things away from you, vanilla beans, you remember. Yeah, the egg whites. And bananas and pineapples and egg whites. Yeah, I remember that. And you probably got like, oh, come on. You know, these are probably some of my favorite foods. I used to have a little banana. Yeah. Yeah. Vanilla, I didn't miss that much. I decided to go with strawberries. Yeah. I really liked because they didn't have like a lot of sugar. Right. Right. And what else? Kiwi, but just a little portion. Yeah, kiwi is great for it. It's actually maybe one of the best fruits. Awesome. What motivated you to try this, you know, difficult life change? That I was feeling so, so bad. Like I was feeling so bad that I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have a life anymore. I couldn't eat anything. Like I didn't have energy. As I was telling you, I would be like dizzy so, so much. I didn't understand why I was so dizzy, bloated, uncomfortable. So like I trusted you, you know, I knew your like your history, and I've read your books and everything. And when you told me to do all these changes, I was like, absolutely, whatever you tell me to do, I will do. I need to eat the carpet, I will do. But yeah, like as soon as I started doing all these changes, and I had the vitamin D and I had those, the biocomplete three, the supplements, total return, all those things, it changed to my life completely. And I felt the change immediately, which was really like magic. So what would you say to someone who's feeling the same way you did back then? What's your advice? I would say go to see Dr. Gondry. Of course, the ideal for me will be to, for them to have like a blood test to and see what foods are causing this damage to them so that they can actually find the roots of their problems and start doing the changes, maybe like taking some supplements, taking also vitamin D or whatever, right? And the good news is I put all that experience in my brand new book, Gut Check. Yes, I got it. I'm so excited. So you don't necessarily have to come and see me. But if you just kind of follow the recommendations, we find, but yeah, most people have very low vitamin D levels. When we look at... I never thought it was going to be so low. Yeah. And most people, even 80% of people in Southern California, they have very low vitamin D levels and everybody goes, what the heck? It's sunny all the time in Southern California. We had, we had some in some blocks, right? We cover up, yeah. And we're not really supposed to cover up. For those of you who are hearing this, it's not about being perfect because a lot of times, if we know the culprits, and believe me, I've known the culprits now for over 23 years, if we know who the culprits are and get them out of our diet, get our vitamin D levels up, then you're a perfect example. We can start re-enjoying these foods. I'm eating everything. Yeah, which is fantastic. And believe me, I'm a big fan of the right cheeses. A lot of people initially, all dairy is a mischief maker to them and eggs are a mischief maker. But the good news is, most people, we can get this stuff back to them. Yeah. But you got to do a little work to do it. But it's so worth it, right? It's so completely worth it. Now, before I let you go, as you know, I usually do an audience question where an audience member asks me a question. So I'm going to let you be the audience today and you get to ask me a question. You got any? Okay, yeah. Is it possible to mix the total restore and the biocomplete three altogether? It's better to just go with one or the other? I think it's a one, two punch. Okay. And biocomplete three was not only to do that, but to re-change your gut bacteria for the better. So it's kind of one and two punch, total restore and biocomplete three. Perfect. Got it. Because a lot of people ask me that. Yeah. And that's, you know, and it's interesting. They're really usually our number one and number two selling products at Gundry MD. They're amazing. Because, quite frankly, they work. Totally. I always say that. Yeah, they're magic and they can take both. They can also get the vitamin D that is amazing. And that really helped me. And I'm sure it will help to the people too that are watching us. And then the next thing, what I want to do, well, obviously, stay in touch, I want to retest you at the one year mark. So that'll be coming up in a few months. In four months. Yeah. And let's see where it is. I'm ready to get those numbers up. Well, I already have. I'm sure. I feel like I have my numbers up. Yeah. The interesting thing, your point is well taken. People often assume that feeling bad is just what is life has gotten stored for them. And people aren't not supposed to feel bad. They're not supposed to have tummy issues. There are signals of the body, I guess. Yeah, they're signal. You have to listen. You have to listen. And you're a great example. You know, wow, I forgot how feeling good felt. Yes. I forgot I had to take some. I had to, I forgot I had to have some vitamin D. I forgot so many things. Right. Thanks for watching, but don't go anywhere. The next episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast is waiting for you now. Skintags are trying to tell you that you have an elevated insulin level and you most likely have an elevated insulin like growth factor.