Road Repair: Giving Your GI Tract the Care It Deserves

In this episode of Stance for Health, Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth shine a spotlight on the critical importance of maintaining a healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract for overall well-being. 

They delve into the alarming statistics of GI diseases affecting millions and discuss practical steps for improvement. 

Central to their advice is the 'Nine Cup Challenge'—consuming nine cups of vegetables daily to boost fiber intake and aid digestion. 

The episode also highlights the significant role of the gut-brain connection and how lifestyle changes, like mindful eating and intermittent fasting, can lead to better health outcomes. 

Podcast about the FatZapper.

Follow us on Instagram.

Follow us on Facebook.

Visit our website. 

Please rate us and write a review!

Transcript

[00:07] Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health podcast with Dr. Rodney and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated. Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you want, have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor, and Karen is an author, speaker, and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for Health. Hi, and welcome to Stance for Health podcast. I'm Dr. Rodney. Seated next to me, my partner in health is Karen Sebastian - Hope Lady -  WIrth.

[01:03] Karen: Hi there.

[01:05] Dr. Rodney: Hey. So we're talking today about the importance of caring for your GI tract. You know, the question might be in your mind is if I'm listening to this today. Yeah, I know I need to take care of my GI tract. It's really important, but how do I know I'm abusing it?

[01:20] Karen: Well, I can tell you a statistic. It says that 60 to 70 million people living in the USA are suffering from GI disease. 40% were prevented from participating in routine activities due to bowel problems in the last year. So, what does that tell you?

[01:39] Dr. Rodney: Well, that tells me a lot. I think what I'm getting here is that obviously the stats show that something's not working.

[01:49] Karen: Absolutely. And yet we continue to do the same thing, have the same lifestyle, and we're not changing what's happening.

[01:56] Dr. Rodney: Assuming that the GI tract was working a hundred percent, what do you think it does?

[02:02] Karen: It feeds you.

[02:03] Dr. Rodney: Right. So, all you’ve got to do is just swallow food and water and you'll be good.

[02:08] Karen: That's what we hope. What happens when everything gets stopped or you go too much? It just seems like lives and days revolve around how people's GI tract is functioning. A lot of jokes around it, too.

[02:23] Dr. Rodney: Oh, there are. There are lots of them come to mind right now. So we're digesting food, we're absorbing nutrients, micronutrients, trace elements, and then we don't even realize how it's a permeable barrier, but it's selectively permeable, and then that can go haywire. Or it's almost like you have this tube that's going through you. It's like skin on the outside of your body, except it's thinner. So that single cell that's designed to absorb food actually winds on itself. And those are called villi. And then on top of those villi, those finger-like things are microvilli. And then that's just basically the surface of a cell.

[03:07] Karen: Wow.

[03:08] Dr. Rodney: And that cell is held together by these gap junctions. And those gap junctions have names. And we've already gone into detail before.

[03:17] Karen: Yeah, we'll have a link to all of this.

[03:20] Dr. Rodney: That's where leaky gut comes in.

[03:21] Karen: Also, besides digesting and absorbing the nutrients, it's also a barrier for the pathogens.

[03:29] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, it's like external protection, but on the inside of your body.

[03:34] Karen: And then when you have people who have Crohn's disease, where they have to remove large parts of the intestines, they just don't ever get the nutrients there. The other part that we need to look at that we often forget, is that gut brain connection, because that's the fourth thing that proper digestion does.

[03:54] Dr. Rodney: Because remember, there's not just a blood brain barrier, there's a gut blood blood barrier. That's what we're talking about.

[04:02] Karen: So the nervous system, via the gut brain axis of the vagus nerve sends messages. And that's where I think we have to look at what is this largest organ in the body.

[04:17] Dr. Rodney: So if we have an estimated 60 to 70 million people affected in this country that have GI distress or GI problems at some level, and.

[04:26] Karen: And that's affecting them to where they.

[04:27] Dr. Rodney: Miss work or family gatherings, that's the person that's diagnosed.

[04:32] Karen: And you have all the rest that. I mean, it may be, oh, I've got acid reflux, and they're just popping the.

[04:39] Dr. Rodney: And we call it. So, we call that subclinical. Wow. There's no telling how many people then are affected by this. So, if you're listening to this, hopefully we've got your attention so far is what are some practical steps that we do then to protect our guts? They're really pretty simple, aren't they?

[04:58] Karen: They are. And at the same time, people resist these steps more than others because food is such part of our lives.

[05:07] Dr. Rodney: Because on the surface it's just food, but beyond the surface, it's cultural in a way. So what we're really talking about is increasing or improving our digestion.

[05:20] Karen: And I think the food we put in there, the more real food we put in there. I know that for me, when we started our Nine-Cup Challenge, the nine-cup challenge is your goal is to eat nine cups of vegetables. You can cook them, but measure them at raw 9 cups of vegetables a day. So, I think that that's what we get from the vegetables. We get fiber, we get so much variety.

[05:47] Dr. Rodney: And the good guys on the Inside. That's actually who we're concerned about. That's who we're feeding. We're not just feeding ourselves.

[05:53] Karen: Did you know the other statistic is that this is personal. Okay. So don't get embarrassed. But chronic constipation affects an estimated 63 million Americans. And 20% of the people say that they have GERD, which is the gastroesophageal reflux disease.

[06:15] Dr. Rodney: We're saying that not enough people are accepting this challenge that we didn't even know was issued to us. Nine cups a day.

[06:23] Karen: You don't even have one cup. What do you eat during the day? Real food. Veggies.

[06:29] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, that's.

[06:30] Karen: What if you can just start doing that, that would be great.

[06:34] Dr. Rodney: Exactly. Do these foods then, in this nine-cup challenge, do they have something different in them other than. Than fiber? Are there other things that help?

[06:44] Karen: Oh, absolutely. All kinds of things that help because for one thing, you've got to chew them like crazy.

[06:52] Dr. Rodney: Sure. And what does that stimulate? Does that stimulate anything in our body?

[06:56] Karen: Absolutely. Okay, tell us more about that.

[06:58] Dr. Rodney: Well, I'm glad you asked that, because a lot of times what we don't realize is that these vegetables aren't almost indigestible, but there's parts of them that are actually, even though they're stable, they're stable carbs. There's some part of it that still starts to digest, and we're digesting it for our good guys. With salivary amylase, some of our saliva has to be tagged as self rather than something invading us. That's what helps with the chewing, that when you chew, you're actually telling your body, this is okay. This is safe to go through.

[07:36] Karen: And so those digestive enzymes start with chewing.

[07:40] Dr. Rodney: Salivary amylase, for instance.

[07:42] Karen: It signals to the body, okay, take as much of this as you can from this. Wow.

[07:48] Dr. Rodney: But then there's obviously, there's stuff in the small intestines, in the duodenum and the pancreas that do a different job. As you go further down, we're talking about enzymes. Now, obviously, that's stuff that you want to use to break down your food at the right time. Now we're talking about this gut brain axis that's taking place not just through the nervous system, but it's also occurring through bloodstream. If you pick that up from the gut and it's already inflamed and you have this inflammatory response, that's going to transmit negative messages all the way up to the brain, isn't it?

[08:26] Karen: That's incredible. Yes, yeah.

[08:29] Dr. Rodney: So some practical. Some. Something practical. I know that you. We don't want this to just be information. We want it to be information you can use, Something you can get results right away.

[08:41] Karen: And that's what we were talking about. The enzyme function is that if you're eating fresh, raw or fermented foods. We've made sauerkraut recently.

[08:51] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[08:51] Karen: And it's not hard to do.

[08:54] Dr. Rodney: It's like something you just. You put it in a jar and then you don't think about it for how long.

[08:59] Karen: Salt on some cabbage that you've chopped finely.

[09:02] Dr. Rodney: Right. And there's food processors for that. You don't have a sous chef.

[09:06] Karen: Exactly.

[09:07] Dr. Rodney: To do that.

[09:08] Karen: Then another thing you can do to conserve enzymes is fasting. So intermittent fasting is going to help so that by the time you do eat, you're ready for it. Part of what we're doing in our current culture is we graze. We are never really hungry. That's why intermittent fasting is good.

[09:27] Dr. Rodney: What I like about just using that term, intermittent fasting. I'm not just not eating food. What I'm also doing is I'm letting my body. If you call that internal surface of your body a road, then you're letting the body repair the road.

[09:43] Karen: That is such a good analogy, because that's really what's happening. You know, you want to have a smooth transition of all of that, and so that's important. And then we've already said chew. One of our health partners that's doing the fat zapper and is looking to lose not only pounds, but inches through this incredible laser. I could put a link to more of that in. In the show notes as well. She is struggling because as a teacher, she has less than 20 minutes, and so eating a salad is difficult for her. So she eats something very quickly. And so that's the. The world that we live in is that people are. Well, how many times do you see it? You're driving down the road and somebody is just stuffing something in their mouth. I mean, it's a taco or fast food or something, but. But there's no thought. Have you ever eaten a lot and then looked down and said, what was I? I was thinking about something.

[10:47] Dr. Rodney: Oh, that's so good. Wow. Yeah. Even as you say that, I'm. I'm getting a. A picture of what life used to be like. And you don't really have a lunch hour. You have a. Almost like what you said. You have a lunch, 20 minutes, or even if you even take lunch, maybe you're maybe you're eating it at your desk while you work. Oh my goodness.

[11:09] Karen: And so what you want to do is slow it down and chew carefully. And the longer you chew, basically the more time those enzymes have to start breaking down that food and to have the better digestion.

[11:28] Dr. Rodney: That's so good.

[11:29] Karen: That's really important.

[11:30] Dr. Rodney: You know, I'm almost getting a thought that keeps coming back. Is it possible that we need to change our lifestyle?

[11:37] Karen: Oh, absolutely. We have.

[11:39] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[11:39] Karen: And the difference that it's made in our lives is astronomical. I mean, as far as the de aging and the rejuvenation lifestyle. And you're going to be envious, but we've created this way. We take a two-hour lunch, drive- There's a lot of 2’s in here - 2.2 miles one way to our house. Eat the food that I prepared, which is real food. We're sitting either in the backyard or looking out if it's too hot from our breakfast nook or in this case, our lunch nook. And then I take a nap and we come back and have a busy afternoon and evening. Here's the thing. We made a choice. Do you have a choice? You always have a choice.

[12:22] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. We've changed what we spend money on. And it feels like in a way there's this wealth concept that if you spend more money on certain things, you'll get more out of them longer. So our goal behind this is to treat our Earth suit like we bought a really expensive suit and that expensive suit will last longer.

[12:46] Karen: Or we're driving an expensive car that's going to last us much longer. It takes more to put into it.

[12:55] Dr. Rodney: The check engine light comes on a little easier when you're more sensitive.

[13:00] Karen: Exactly. Yeah. Oh my goodness.

[13:02] Dr. Rodney: Are there any thoughts that just keep coming back about this GI tract concept?

[13:08] Karen: I think we can devote another episode to the gut brain connection because I think that is just so important.

[13:15] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[13:15] Karen: It's just that if you're eating under stress and you're just feeling that fight or flight even as you're shoving it in, because you've got to get back to your next part of your life or your work or studies or whatever it is, it's going to have an effect and it's not going to be a good one.

[13:38] Dr. Rodney: That's a somber note to leave on. This whole purpose behind this is to empower you to get something that you can think about that's positive so that you can stop certain things, you can start certain things, continue to do what you're doing.

[13:58] Dr. Rodney: And we do that with our health partners a lot.

[14:00] Karen: The research for this has made me realize that I need to walk around for at least two minutes before I take my nap because it's better digestion if you take a little bit of physical exercise. You can see why, because that lets everything, all that flow, the contraction, the mixing of all of the happening in the GI tract is going to help it.

[14:28] Dr. Rodney: I want to charge you with something since you're listening to this now. If you've gotten this far, share this with somebody. If you think, hey, maybe I just don't know how to tell them about their digestion issues. Let us tell them. We'll be the good bad guys or whatever, good cop, bad cop. And then just say, hey. And then just ask them, hey, what'd you think of that? What do you think of that concept? And so with that, now that that subject has been broached, maybe it'll be easier for you. So sometimes you just need to be able to broach a subject and let someone else do the hard part of the conversation. All of this so that you can take your Stance for Health and help others to do the same. We'll talk to you soon. 

Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity. If this podcast has been helpful, please write a review. We'll see you next time.