#102 Understanding food sensitivity tests, is it possible to cure Rheumatoid Arthritis, and how often should you move your bowels? With Dr. Justin Marchegiani!
Hey guys! Hopefully, you have enjoyed our 100th episode special so far! In this episode returning, we have, Dr. Justin Marchegiani. He is the host of “Just In Health” podcast and runs the Just In Health Wellness Clinic and consults patients all over via Skype. He works with everyone from athletes who are trying to increase their performance to people struggling with autoimmune issues and chronic illness. It is such an honor to have Dr. Justin Marchegiani on the podcast again!
Video Version: https://youtu.be/3rJ5oHLg8Eo
Dr. Marchegiani’s Website: https://justinhealth.com/
Chantel: Hey, guys. Welcome to this week’s episode, and I’m so excited. By popular demand, very popular demand, we have Dr. Justin Marchegiani. I love saying his last name.
Dr. Justin M.: You pronounced it right. Great job.
Chantel: He is the host of Just In Health podcast, and I’m a huge fan of it. He also runs the Just In Health Wellness Clinic, and he consults patients all over, via Skype, which is great because we have so many listeners. Guess where we have the most listeners? What state do you think? California.
Dr. Justin M.: [inaudible 00:00:37].
Chantel: Yeah. California is number one, and Texas is number two, actually. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep. He works with everyone from athletes trying to increase their performance, to just people who have chronic autoimmune issues or chronic illness. It’s such an honor to have you back, so welcome.
Dr. Justin M.: Chantel, thanks for having me back on the podcast. I’m really excited to be here.
Chantel: Let’s jump right in. The first question is from Sherry in Alexandria. “I hear all the time about the importance of magnesium for people with autoimmune issues, like me. How can I tell if my magnesium is low? I’ve recently learned that there are different kinds of magnesium, and now I’m just confused. Like, which one’s the right one to take, what brand, et cetera?” Sherry in Alexandria.
Dr. Justin M.: All right. Awesome, great question. Because I’m in the clinical trenches every week with patients, probably 50 or 60 patients from all over the world, which is exciting, this is all I talk about, so this stuff’s fresh in my head. Magnesium, number one, has over 1,000 enzymatic roles in the body. According to many studies, 50% of the population is deficient in magnesium. Off the bat, I would just say it’s good just to assume that you’re deficient, based on some of the research, number one. Magnesium has so many different enzymatic roles; over 1000, like I mentioned. Different ways you can tell. Well, if you’re having cramping, typically magnesium and potassium are going to be the two biggest electrolytes or minerals for cramping, so cramping is number one.
Dr. Justin M.: Number two, we can do some objective testing. You have your typical magnesium serum, which is on a CMP blood test, comprehensive metabolic profile. We want that two or above. Now, your better source of magnesium testing is an RBC magnesium. That looks at intercellular, inside the cell, versus outside the cell with the serum. We want that five or higher. That gives you a pretty good window if you’re getting enough.
Dr. Justin M.: Now, there’s different types of magnesium. You have the cheaper kinds, like oxide which are good for bowel motility, citrates like a Natural Calm, which is still pretty good. Then, you have the better absorb malate and glycinate versions that are bound to either malic acid or a glycine molecule, which are really great for optimal absorption. Typically for the best, malate and glycinate. For just average absorption, like you’re doing pretty good, and you want to save some money and not buying the more expensive ones, citrate is good. And then oxide, I’ll use or people more with gut killing programs for motility purposes, not necessarily for supplementing magnesium.
Chantel: Gotcha. I brought something here. What is your opinion on something like this?
Dr. Justin M.: I like Natural Calm. I think it’s pretty good. Again, it just depends what’s going on. How magnesium deficient you are, and how good your absorption is. If we have more absorption or more gut issues, I’ll go to a more malate or glycinate form. If your gut’s doing pretty good, then a citrate form, like in Natural Calm, is still pretty good.
Chantel: Our last guest that came on said that she really preferred glycinate over citrate-
Dr. Justin M.: I do, too. 100%.
Chantel: Again, it’s like, well do you want to poop, or do you just need magnesium? Is that what you’re saying? Which are you looking for?
Dr. Justin M.: Citrate’s a good happy medium, where it will help you move your bowels, but it’s still much better absorbed than oxide, for instance. Magnesium glycinate and malate won’t necessarily move your bowel. So it just depends what your goal is. Also, malate is nice too. It’s in my Magnesium Supreme. I like it because it interplays with the Krebs cycle really well. If you running some tests, and you see you may have some mitochondrial or Krebs cycle energy production issues, malate plugs right into the Krebs cycle, which is great for energy production.
Chantel: Talk about that for a second. You have your own blend of magnesium that you have on your site?
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah. It’s a magnesium malate. It’s a high quality magnesium malate. There are other brands out there that have that. Your two best qualities are a glycinate or a malate. Then, I just chose what the malate forum, because I see a lot of patients … We run organic acid tests, and organic acids are these metabolic compounds. We can run different ones that look at the Krebs cycle, the citric acid cycle. A lot of times, magnesium is a core intermediary compound in that. When people have energy issues, right, we see these organic acids really extremely high or low, then we would use magnesium. Also, magnesium is great for brain inflammation. Dr. Russell Blaylock, he was a former neurosurgeon, he found that the patients that he supplemented, magnesium post brain surgery healed so much better than the ones that didn’t. There’s a lot of good benefits, anti-inflammatory, to relaxation. It’s a natural beta blocker. 1000 enzymatic roles in the body. It’s a really important blood sugar compound as well. If you eat lots of carbs or too much sugar, you’re going to burn up magnesium. If your diet stinks then you’re definitely going to go into magnesium debt, so to speak.
Chantel: Gotcha. Okay. This next question is from Evelyn in Sacramento. “I’ve taken three different food sensitive sensitivity tests over the past couple years, and they all say something different. I don’t understand why my results keep changing, and it’s frustrating that I keep spending money on them. I don’t even know if these tests are accurate, and which ones are the best to take.”
Dr. Justin M.: That’s a great question. I had done an in-depth video on this. I’ve done podcasts on this so feel free, head over to justinhealth.com. Use that search bar, because everything I do is transcribed, so that’s helpful. Number one, typically, if you love it, rotate it. Any food that you frequently eat, with gut permeability issues, meaning leaky gut, you will eventually develop a food allergy to it. Clinically, I don’t do a ton of food allergy tests. They can be helpful. I don’t do a ton, because if I’m working with someone that has a gut issue, [CBOE 00:06:19] and a parasitic infection, low stomach acid, poor enzymes, gut permeability issues, they may run a test and they may come back with strawberries as a food allergen. Well, now we’re eating more blueberries. Now blueberries come back next month. It becomes this moving target whack-a-mole that gets really frustrating.
Dr. Justin M.: I look at going through the six Rs, removing the bad foods. If you love it, rotate it. Replace enzymes and acids, because foods not digested properly, even if they’re healthy, can become an issue. Three, you’re repairing the gut lining and or the hormones, because that’s important for inflammation and good barrier function. Four, remove the infection. The second R, that’s where we remove the infection. Fifth R, repopulation, reinoculation. Sixth R, retest to make sure we got it all, and there’s no new stuff. We go to that sixth R, I recommend if you love it, rotate it, and food allergy testing is better, I find, when your gut is in better shape, and you’re eating a variety of food, and you’re feeling pretty good, and you want to just see is there any extra immune activation, that’s where it can be more helpful. If not, I start off with like an autoimmune elimination diet. Having some variety to those foods, so we’re not eating the same things all the time, getting our immune systems revved up.
Chantel: Yeah, we get this question over and over and over again, in just different forms. Literally, that’s what they say. They’re like, “Well, I took this test, and it said I’m allergic to A, B, C, and D. Then, I waited two months, and now I’m allergic to none of those, and now I’m allergic to …” You really feel like that, and these tests are expensive, so you’re spending all this money, and it’s like, “Now, I’m allergic to this.” You literally could drive yourself insane, because you’re like …
Dr. Justin M.: You can, absolutely. Sometimes, you run those tests, and there are certain foods, like it says gluten is, okay but you know that this person can’t eat gluten, because there’s more immune reactions than what you’re seeing. I did a podcast with Dr. Russell Jaffe. He’s part of the Eliza Act test. He runs that test. Now, the Eliza is interesting, because it looks at IGG and IGA, which are your typical food allergen ones. The big one you see now as the Everly Well, that’s primarily IGG, but there are other T-cell, immune-mediated food responses that aren’t going to be picked up in an IGG or IGA. You have to know that there are other potential immune system things that could be happening underneath just that IGG IGA that’s conventionally tested.
Chantel: If someone calls you, are you even going to do a food allergy test with them?
Dr. Justin M.: Typically not, especially with patients when they have issues off the bat, because there’s too many other driving factors that are causing these issues to begin with. We focus, on those within the six Rs that I mentioned. Some people have a lot of CBO, they may have to address FODMAPs, salicylates, phenols, or autoimmune foods. Some people, they’re eating great, but they’re just not breaking down those foods. That can be a problem too, because the foods rancidify, putrefy, ferment, and that can be an issue too. It’s not just the food, it’s are you breaking that food down too?
Chantel: Gotcha. All right, this is from Anonymous. “I know this sounds gross, but I’ve really been dissecting my poop lately. One thing I’ve noticed, is that I’ve eaten corn, and it didn’t break down. It was completely whole. What causes corn not to break down, and should I be avoiding it for that reason? Why can you see certain items in your poop and you can’t see others? For example, I’ve noticed that beets and watermelon dye my poop red, while other foods have absolutely no effect.” Anonymous.
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah, great question. Number one beats typically do that. That’s a normal feature of beets. They’ve been used for a while to test transit time. So does charcoal, too. Charcoal will make your poop go black, number one. Number two, the question was regarding … The color, we hit that. Regarding corn, yeah, if you don’t chew that corn up, that fiber on the outside, it’s really hard to break down, and so you may pass that through. Also, grains, which corn is a grain, the main protein in corn is zein, which is a cousin of gluten, it still can be an anti-nutrient inflammatory compound with the gut. When the gut hits inflammatory things, it just wants to push it through, because it’s a stressor on the body.
Dr. Justin M.: There is that component. I always say, chew your food 32 times, at least one chew per tooth on average. That way, you can break the food up so it has more surface area to be attacked by enzymes and acids, number one. Number two, don’t eat inflammatory foods, especially when you have issues, because that your body is going to do its best to flush that out. Also, stay away from a lot of the anti-nutrients, the lectins, the salicylates, the phenols. These are plant-based compounds. Plants don’t have teeth and fangs, but they have these anti-nutrients as a means of kind of passing themselves on, so they can be deposited in the soil and grow back as something else down the road.
Chantel: Let’s say beets, like you said, you definitely can see beets, it’ll turn your poop red. What do you think is your ideal transit time? Meaning, “I’m going to eat some beats right now. If every time I go and …”
Dr. Justin M.: 18 to 24 hours.
Chantel: 18 to 24?
Dr. Justin M.: 24 is about right. Then, you can put your stopwatch on it, just so you can … You can just know are you moving things out pretty well? That’s what gives you a pretty good objective test. You can do it with charcoal. Charcoal can slow down your motility a bit, but within 24 hours, we want everything that was inside your body now to be out.
Chantel: If someone does that, and they go, “I’m going to eat this, poop, and it’s been now two days, and no, I’m not seeing any sign. Now, two and a half days, now I’m finally seeing it move, and this is a consistent problem.” What would you say to them? What would you tell them? “This is what you need to do to get that transit time a lot faster.”
Dr. Justin M.: There’s root cause, and there’s palliative, right? The conventional palliative, is you use your over-the-counter laxatives, MiraLax whatever, which is full anti-freeze by the way. Or, you could do your more natural laxatives, which are the more abrasive ones, like Senna or Cascara Sagrada, more abrasive. Then, there are more [inaudible 00:12:28], like vitamin C and magnesium. Vitamin C and magnesium are better, but in general, it’s still not getting to the root cause, unless it’s just cause you have low magnesium. Part of the reason why you could have low bowel motility could be hypothyroidism. Thyroid hormone is really important for stimulating that migrating motor complex. Number two, you could have some kind of a gut infection, whether it’s CBO, a generalized dysbiosis, just more bad bacteria than good, a parasitic infection, H pylori. It could even just be a fungal overgrowth, and or a combination of low stomach acid and enzymes, and your food’s not being broken down fully. It could just be food allergens. The food is very inflammatory and stressful on the gut, and that’s creating a sympathetic nervous system response, which is slowing down motility. It could be a combination of things. It’s never one. I always have to draw a line with my patients and say, “okay, what’s root cause? What are natural, palliative things we can do to help in the meantime?” Then you want to meet in the middle a lot of times.
Chantel: Gotcha. If you were going to say, “I want to go the most natural method,” would you say the vitamin C or the magnesium would be your first choice to get things moving?
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah, exactly. You just start low, and you work your way up. Do it at night, on an empty stomach, before you go to bed. Then, you want to be passing at least 12 inches of stool a day. That’s key. You’ve still got to get to the root cause. You may think, “Hey, this magnesium worked,” but it’s still not a root cause treatment.
Chantel: All right. This is Carol in the Hamptons. “I try to really listen to my body, and see how I feel after eating certain foods. If I eat something like a plain salad, I feel great, but I notice when I pack in a lot of protein, chicken, fish, meat, I don’t feel great, and I have digestion issues. I always think of protein as being something great and healthy to eat. Why would it be causing digestion issues?”
Dr. Justin M.: This is great question. Protein is very energy depleting, meaning it requires a lot of stomach acid. So if you have poor stomach acid levels, protein is going to really reveal weakness in your digestive physiology. This is part of the reason, in my opinion, why a lot of people go vegan, vegetarians. They’re like, “I just feel so much better with eating plants, and doing this, and doing the juicing.” I’m like, okay, you’re doing that. It’s like going to the gym, and I’m going to go lift on the machine, and do really light weights, versus the heavier weights that are free weight. It’s because it’s a little bit harder on your system doing those type of movements, than doing the machine ones. It’s the same thing. It’s revealing, more than likely, we have lower hydrochloric acid and enzyme levels. We have to work on that. There could be other things that are still driving, that like food allergy issues, like gut infections, like other emotional stressors that aren’t being resolved, deeper infections as well. You got to look at it and try to get to the root cause.
Chantel: Good. Susan in Washington. “I’ve been recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis as well as you can be diagnosed with it.” I don’t know what that means. “It seems like so many of my symptoms could be applied to a lot of different autoimmune issues. After visiting tons of different doctors, and evaluating my systems, it seems I definitely have it. My flare ups have been getting progressively worse, with swelling in my joints, and pain so bad, I can’t even get out of bed. I know there’s no cure, just a lot of really strong drugs with crazy side effects. Any advice for me?”
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah, got to get to the root cause. RA, or rheumatoid arthritis, is an autoimmune condition, especially with women. They’re five times more likely to get an autoimmune issue over a man. When you have one, there’s a 76% chance there’s a second one. It’s called polyglandular autoimmune syndrome. Do you have it? You can text ANA markers, HLAB 27, there’s even RA latax. These are different immune markers to see if it’s there. It’s nice to know, if you can get an objective marker, because then when we treat patients, we’d like to see it go away. More importantly, I’d like to see the symptoms improve. That bilateral pain, especially out of the blue, no wear and tear component to it. There’s an autoimmune issue, got to get the foods right, got to get the infections.
Dr. Justin M.: A lot of times, mycobacterium, or other types of bacteria, could be present with these types of RA issues. We got to get the infections under control, get the immune system calmed down. A lot of times, leaky gut is a big immune component, because that opens up the tight junctions in your small intestine, allowing undigested food, bacteria, particles to get in the bloodstream, which fires up that immune response. When that immune response is as firing, one, it can attack other tissues, AKA your joints, that synovial tissue. That’s common in RA. Then also, it can create other immune stress really depleting a lot of your energy, too. You got to get to the root cause.
Chantel: This is Tracy in North Carolina. “I have researched all different ways to know if I have parasites or not, and I have all of the signs and symptoms, so I’m 100% convinced that I have them. The tests are so expensive, like over $300 for a stool test, and this is so much money when I already know I have it. My question is, what is your favorite cure for parasites? Is there and herbal medicine I should take, or something stronger like an antibiotic? The main issues I have are chronic brain fog, memory issues, crawling, itching around my skin, and I also have iron deficiencies, low vitamin B and D. Are there any of your favorite parasite cleanses that you recommend? Do you feel like I should take the stool test, and just spend the money, even though I know I already have them?
Dr. Justin M.: That’s a really good question. I’ll give you my clinical experience, having treated over a thousand patients with parasite issues, you want to test for two reasons, especially when the symptoms are severe and longterm, you could have more than one. As you knock an infection out that may be on the first test, on the retest, we may find a new infection. The third component is, you may get reinfected through a spouse. There’s that component. You really want to make sure are you knocking it out? Number two, is there an infection burrow in deeper into the gut lining, and we call that crypt hyperplasia, where that infection now comes out after that first infection was treated. It’s easy when it’s like you treat, you feel better, awesome. It’s like a one-to-one. Then, you treat, you don’t get all the way better, that’s where it’s like, “Now what?” That’s where having that testing retesting, because if not, you’re guessing versus assessment. We want to really be assessing to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Dr. Justin M.: Now, regarding herbs in my line, I have GI clears one through six. Like, on my one, I use a lot of stimona, dill, and wormwood, great for parasites. My two is more for H pylori, a lot of clove and mastic gum, which is helpful. Three, I use a pure silver. Silver is great for biofilms, viruses, and bacteria, too. Good for fungus. Four is my bigger parasite killer. A lot of berberine, a lot of golden seal, a lot of olive leaf, a lot of grapefruit seed. These are general herbs. There are different formulas that are out there, I’m just giving you the breakdown. Five, in my line, a high dose oil of oregano. Oil of oregano is proven to kill lots of parasites. High dose is great. Then six, I use a lot of more fungus, [inaudible 00:19:49], olive leaf, tinea spora. That gives you a good general gist. Also, mimosa pudica is great for parasites, pure wormwood is great for parasites. It depends. I try to stay away from the antibiotics if we can. They tend to do a good enough job without it. Only with certain occasions, we may go to antibiotics.
Chantel: Yeah. I guess what she’s saying, is if she went on your site, and you have a bunch of different … If you go to justinhealth.com, you’ve got some really amazing, different ones one there-
Dr. Justin M.: It would depend on the infections though, because I combine them-
Chantel: Yeah. Otherwise, she’ll just be buying all these different things, not knowing what she actually has. Correct?
Dr. Justin M.: It really depends on the infection, because I have different protocols for different parasites, as well as fungus, or H pylori. Or, we may sequence them different if different things are there. It really, really depends. Obviously, there are some generalized ones that are just good general herbs to do, like a one or a four. Those are [inaudible 00:20:49] generalized protocols, but it just gets a little hairy when the symptoms aren’t all the way gone. That’s where I always let patients know, because they just think, “Hey, I’m going to treat. I’m going to be better in 60 days.” That may not be the case. It may be a little bit deeper, and that’s where having that data is so helpful.
Chantel: All right. This is from Anonymous. “Recently I went to the doctor to have my stool sample checked, and I was shocked because they took the most microscopic amount of stool. When the test came back, they said I didn’t have a parasite or anything, and that my sample looked normal. When I read online, I literally have every single symptom for parasites. Why would the doctor say that I don’t? Is it possible that they didn’t take enough of a sample? I’ve checked my own poop at home, which I know sounds weird and I can’t see any worms. I even bought a microscope to check it myself. As I’m checking, what should I be looking for? Is this all in my head? Anonymous.
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah. Number one, you’re never going to be able to do it yourself, because even a trained parasitologist, that’s done this for years, it’s hard, number one. You have to know what you’re looking for. Number two, you have to have stains. The stains bring out various parasites, so you have to be using the correct stains. Number two, some of the better technology that’s out, the PCR based technology, which stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is looking at the DNA, it’s about two to 3000 times more sensitive. One of those tests is called the GI map. It’s one of the tests that I use. I like that test for looking at the DNA components. With some of the stool testing, I use BioHealth’s 41H. That’s a three- to four-day stool sample. The parasitologist that run that lab are great, and it’s taking multiple days, so that’s really helpful, too. If we run a conventional stool test, we’ll run one of those multi-day ones, and then maybe even combine it with a DNA-based test. That gives you a window. We’re looking at different things. The only thing you’ll be able to see in your stool visibly is a worm, if it’s there, but everything else will be microscopic for the most part, and you may need certain stains to bring it about, as well as a trained eye.
Chantel: This is Andrea in Chesterfield. “I struggle with thyroid function. and I’m constantly asking my myself the question, ‘Is it the chicken or the egg? Which comes first?’ Do you think that my thyroid issues cause massive constipation? Or, does my constipation caused my thyroid to perform poorly?” Andrea in Chesterfield.
Dr. Justin M.: That’s a great question. It really depends on the timeline. When I’m with a new patient, we’ll kind of walk through the timeline, “Hey, walk me through when everything started. When did these issues start happening? What started first?” It’s like, “Did I start to have fatigue, cold hands, and cold feet, and then the motility stuff happened later? Or, did a lot of the motility stuff happen first?” Of course, when you have lower motility, you probably have poor absorption, poor digestion. We’re not absorbing the nutrients to run our thyroid gland, and then, of course, we can start to have issues. Of course, a lot of thyroid issue is autoimmune. If we have autoimmunity, bad foods that could be attacking the thyroid, which is causing more issues. It just depends on how everything started and unfolded, as well as the other levers, or other variables that may be happening. Maybe six or seven different things happening behind the scenes, and then the symptoms manifest, it’s hard to connect it to it, unless you’re doing deeper testing, and you know what you’re looking for.
Chantel: Margaret in Oklahoma. “My friend told me about something called diatomaceous earth. She said it’s a bug killer that helps you with parasites. I’ve been trying to read up online of how much should I take, how long and how often. I bought a huge food-grade bag on Amazon, and I don’t know where to begin. Do you know anything about it, and is this effective and safe?”
Dr. Justin M.: Yeah, diatomaceous earth, or DE for short, you want about the 3% food grade version. You would take it in between meals. It’s basically very high in silica, and what it does, is it attacks the exoskeleton of the critter, typically more worms. A lot of times, people will give it to their pets as well. It’s a really good dewormer. You can throw it on insects in your backyard too, because it kills them, and it’s nontoxic. It dehydrates their exoskeleton. Now, it can also dehydrate you, and it can bind up some of your nutrition if you’re taking it with food. You want to do it away from meals, typically one to two tablespoons twice a day. I would never just do it by itself. It’d be part of a program. I wouldn’t just do it and say, “Hey, that’s it.” It will be part of an herbal program, and you can do that in between meals, one to two tablespoons three times a day. Make sure it’s food grade, and that’s a good start, but you really want to put it into a comprehensive program, not just a one off.
Chantel: This is Lindsey in Virginia Beach. “I want to know what you think is your favorite probiotic. Which brand do you recommend, and how often should I take it?”
Dr. Justin M.: Great question. Obviously, I have my own formulations, but I’ll just give you some ingredients, so that walks you through it. Obviously, your lactobacillus and bifidobacter species are going to be like your core ones. A lot of research, a lot of data on these. Love these. Then you have brands like a Saccharomyces boulardii, which is really good at knocking down yeast. It helps with C diff. It can help with blasto and H pylori. It can help improve your IGA levels, which is your protective [immunicostal 00:26:14] barrier. There’s various spore based probiotics, like bacillus coagulans, various lichen forma species, bacillus subtilis, [inaudible 00:26:24]. There’s a couple of brands, like Megaspore. In my line, we use one called Sacro Flora for the Saccharomyces. We use a probio flora blend, which has a lot of the lacto and bifido probiotics. Then, there are some out there that are lower histamine, or D lactate free, that are missing a lot of the paracasei species, which to be a little bit more histamine-producing, if you’re really sensitive. That gives you the general gist. My line, it’s Probio Flora, Sacro flora/ Then, we use a spore based one called MegaSpore, which is great. There are a lot of other good brands. Like, your conventional ones are like your VSL 3, which is your lactobacillus bifido species. There’s like Florestore that’s out there, for Saccharomyces. That just gives you a good baseline of what I use clinically.
Chantel: Then, over and over we keep getting the questions, that people say when they listen to the show, they have different people. Everyone’s like, “You should take this, or you should take this, or you should take this.” If you had to someone who, just in general, had gut issues and stuff like that, if you had to pick like your three favorite supplements that would kind of be good for everyone that you would say, they’re not in great health, but you see it over and over, What would be your, “This is what they should be taking.”?
Dr. Justin M.: Great question. As a someone that has their own line of supplements, it’s important that you’re using professional grade. That’s number one. Whatever supplement you’re choosing, it’s gotta be a tier one, professional grade where it’s undergoing independent analysis. You just want to know the company is buying the raw material from the best sources. It’s like you can go to McDonald’s, and you can buy McDonald’s grade meat if you’re making hamburgers, or you can buy the local farmer that has grass-fed meat. Totally two different things. There’s that same thing in the supplement world. You can pay, you know, thousands of dollars per kilogram of CoQ10, or you can pay significantly less, and then you see it on the store of CVS. Those gradations are really important to know. When you’re getting a professional grade line, people are spending more on the raw material. You get what you paid for, number one.
Dr. Justin M.: Number two, low hanging fruit is going to be hydrochloric acid and enzymes. Partly because if you have a hard time digesting and breaking down the food that you’re eating, that’s going to be a stressor on your body. First thing I would say is hydrochloric acid. Make sure you work it to HCL or digestive tolerance. I’d done some videos on this topic, where you work it up to warmness or burning, and then back off by one dose, within reason. You want to work with a good functional medicine doc on that. Then having good enzymes in there, too. If we can break down our food better, now we’re automatically getting a better ROI on the expensive food that we’re eating. That’s the first thing I would say nutritionally, supplement-wise, what the low hanging fruit would be.
Chantel: Now, with the HCL, do you feel like if someone is taking it every day, that their body would then produce less of it, because they’re taking it all the time?
Dr. Justin M.: As far as I’m concerned, what the research has said is the big feedback loop with HCL is gastrin. Gastrin secretions do not drop with HCL supplementation. Now, being said, and you want your own digestive system to work. Once patients relatively are at a place of good digestion, I always say only take it when you’re maybe going out to eat, or having a bigger meal, or it’s a holiday, or you’re just eating more than normal. Or number two, you’re eating when you’re stressed and on the go. When you’re stressed and on the go, your sympathetic nervous system is activated. You’re probably going to make less HCL and enzymes because you need a good parasympathetic nervous system response. Parasympathetic is the brake, the relaxation. The sympathetic is the fight, the flight, and the go. If you have that sympathetic going, it’s really smart to be using extra enzymes and HCL to overcome what may be happening with your nervous system.
Chantel: Do you have any giveaways that you want to give away to our listeners?
Dr. Justin M.: My thyroid reset book is coming out, and I have the first three chapters. It’s about 80-ish pages, so there’s a lot of great info in those first three chapters. That would be the first thing that I would tend to look at. Then, sign up, and you’ll get access to the full book down the road. You’ll be able to purchase that, but the first few chapters would be free. I think it would be a great start for most people.
Chantel: Awesome. Go to our Facebook page, and if you’ll click on the link there, you’ll see it, and you can download the first three pages for free. Awesome. Your website is amazing. If you go to justinhealth.com, you can do a personal a session with Dr. Justin. What else do you have going on, Dr. Justin? How can people connect with you?
Dr. Justin M.: I just did a thyroid summit that’s called The Thyroid Reset Summit. The website is thyroidresetsummit.com that we had over 100,000 people become a part of that. Lots of great information. I have a book coming out called The Thyroid Reset, so make sure you go to justinhealth.com, subscribe to my newsletter. You’ll get all that great information. I also have a podcast there. I have YouTube videos, I do a lot of live videos, answer questions live, and engage with the world on there. That’s an awesome first step to get connected. If you want to dive in deeper, roll up your sleeves with your health concerns, then you can always schedule a new patient concept with me, or my colleagues, to get to that next level.
Chantel: Awesome. Now, how many people do you have on your team now?
Dr. Justin M.: Clinicians, I have three other clinicians. Then I also have support staff to help. Then, we just provide tons of content. I think I help way more people than I actually see in person, so it’s very rewarding, because I see a lot of people, but I get to help even more. It’s amazing what the internet can do.
Chantel: Well, you’re making such a huge impact, and I just think you are so, so smart. I love working with smart people, and you are absolutely amazing and making it a big impact. Thank you so much.
Dr. Justin M.: Well, thanks Chantel, for creating this platform and allow me to share it with your listeners. I really appreciate it,
Chantel: If you have a question that you want answered, go to questions@chantellerayway.com. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
***As always, this podcast is not designed to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any condition and is for information purposes only. Please consult with your healthcare professional before making any changes to your current lifestyle.***