Beyond Probiotics: 3 Powerful Tools For Healing The Gut Biomemicrobiomerestoration.com/.../2019/...Tools-For-Healing-The-Gut-Bio… · With that in mind, weʼll still briefly cover

Beyond Probiotics: 3 IncredibleTools for Healing the Gut BiomeThe gut-brain connection, L. reuteri yogurt, redoxminerals, elimination diets, and more cutting-edgemethods for total gut optimizationKeenan Eriksson May 2

Photo by Michael Schiffer on Unsplash

If you follow my articles, you may already know I didnʼt get into gut healthpurely from a place of passion. While I was already into biohacking and deephealth science years ago, I really became an expert on the subject as a wayto heal myself when I became sick for almost two years.

I never had stomach problems, and my symptoms were primarily mental,including panic attacks, deep anxiety, fatigue, and inability to exercisewithout mental repercussions (a common trait of chronic fatigue syndrome).

Only when I had a deep diagnostic lab panel done did I finally find somethingofficially wrong. Everything up until then had showed perfect numbers,despite how I felt.

Well, in case you havenʼt guessed, the first lab result I got showed that theissue was related to my gut. I had severe gut dysbiosis, an imbalance of badbacteria, yet I had never experienced stomach or gastrointestinal issues.

In this article, Iʼll share with you three of the most powerful gut healingmethods I know. These incredible tools helped me immensely and go farbeyond the abilities of the average probiotic.

With that in mind, weʼll still briefly cover probiotics, as they really are a goodtool for gut health.

So without delay, let s̓ get started.

About the Gut Biome

Inside our digestive tract lies an ecosystem of bacteria that functions insynchronization with our human biology. This ecosystem, known as the gutmicrobiome or gut biome, aids in digestion, fights disease, and even affectsour mood and emotions. However, weʼve only begun to realize howimportant it is in the past 5 to 10 years.

How important are we talking? Let s̓ put things in perspective: You haveapproximately 23,000 human genes influencing your biology. Your gutbiome, if it is healthy, has closer to 3.3 million genes, all of which influenceyou. That number is staggering, and research supports the idea that the gutbiome may be one of the most foundational elements of our health—period.

Specifically, dysfunction in the gut microbiome has been associated withobesity, diabetes, cancer, chronic disease, heart disease, liver disease, andeven severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, andautism. Furthermore, the state of your gut biome is so inextricably linked toyour mental state that the relationship between the two has even beenlabeled the “gut-brain axis.”

Probiotics, which are supplements consisting of “good” bacteria for the gutbiome, have shown efficacy in addressing mood symptoms such as anxietyand depression.

If youʼve already heard of probiotics, Iʼm not surprised. These supplementshave become the go-to method for helping the gut. However, in truth, theyare one of the least impactful methods available for this purpose. The gutbiome is incredibly complex, and there are now many different approachesto maintaining it, several of which are magnitudes more powerful than youraverage probiotic.

Understanding Probiotics

Though I aim in this guide to go beyond probiotics, I want to take some timeto address them. They are, after all, the most popular way of dealing with guthealth, and Iʼd be remiss to leave them out.

Now, to be clear, when I say “probiotics,” I mean probiotic supplements, notprobiotic foods. Probiotic foods are fermented foods that contain a widevariety of bacteria strains, usually in much larger numbers than are found ina probiotic supplement, a pill that contains millions or billions of copies of afew strains of bacteria.

The efficacy of probiotic supplements is questionable, but probiotics areusually well tolerated by the human body, so they are unlikely to cause anyharm. Depending on what kind of probiotic you use, it may not be helping

much, but it s̓ also not likely to be hurting you.

One of the biggest reasons why many probiotics arenʼt very effective is thatthey only contain a small number of different strains of bacteria, whereas thehuman gut contains thousands of different strains when healthy.

With all of this in mind, there is only one probiotic supplement I regularly use,but Iʼll tell you about two other options as well.

P3-OM Probiotic by BiOptimizers

I first heard about the P3-OM probiotic on the Ben Greenfield FitnessPodcast, which is my personal go-to source for all things biohacking, health,and fitness. This blend is a patented probiotic that contains a strain ofbacteria known as L. plantarum that is particularly effective at eliminatinggut pathogens. In layman s̓ terms, it kills bad bacteria and fungal infectionsin your gut by populating it with this strain.

P3-OM also combines well with a good digestive enzyme supplement, andBiOptimizers has my favorite for that as well. Digestive enzymes can benefitfitness by supporting amino acid absorption, and the P3-OM probiotic alsohas this effect.

Now, Iʼm not saying that this is the only good probiotic out there. I justbelieve that if you use a probiotic, you should stick with one from a veryreputable company with great reviews. When in doubt, stick with probioticsthat are made by doctors or are used by functional medical practitioners andgut health experts. Speaking of that, Iʼll turn to my next recommendation.

Soil-Based Probiotic

Dr. Michael Ruscio is a prominent expert on gut health and the author ofHealthy Gut, Healthy You, the most in-depth material on gut health that Iʼvefound. His Soil-Based Probiotic uses bacteria strains often found in soil. Soilis where humans typically come into contact with many of the bacteria that

form our biome.

Children who grow up on farms are exposed to a wide variety of bacteriathrough their environment, and research has shown that they display greaterresistance than other children to conditions such as asthma.

While I havenʼt used the Soil-Based Probiotic personally, I consider Dr.Ruscio to be a reliable source for gut health products. Not only does hereally know his stuff, but he cares deeply about clinical relevance andresearch.

Probiotic Foods

While probiotic foods are not the focus this article, they are an awesome tooland worth mentioning. Probiotic foods are an improvement over probioticsupplements in two ways: they offer greater strain variety, and they contain alarger number of bacteria.

First, probiotic foods are created by fermenting food, and the bacteriastrains that grow in them come from the air. This results in much greatervariety of strains compared to those found in most probiotic supplements.

Second, probiotic supplements contain millions or billions of colony-formingunits (CFUs) at best. The therapeutic dosage for a probiotic is 10 billionCFUs. Let s̓ say for the sake of argument that your daily probiotic has exactlythis amount (in fact, most are lower).

Kimchi, a popular form of fermented cabbage, often contains 1 billion CFUsper gram. That means that 10 grams of kimchi is equivalent to thetherapeutic dose. Ten grams isnʼt much; as a regular kimchi eater, I usuallyconsume 5 or 10 times more than that on a daily basis. This means thatcomparatively, I get five times the probiotic benefit from kimchi than I wouldif I were taking a daily probiotic, and with greater bacterial variety.

There are tons of probiotic foods out there, but some of the most popular

are:

KimchiSauerkrautMiso (a delicious paste used to make soup that is popular in Japan)Natto (one of the only vegan sources of Vitamin K2, which is essentialfor healthy Vitamin D production)Yogurt

Of these foods, kimchi is my favorite. Low in calories but very tasty andfilling, it s̓ a good starting point when it comes to fermented foods. You caneven toss it in with your cooking, such as when pan-grilling steaks, to addsome great spice and a vegetable feel.

Now that you have at least a basic understanding of probiotics, let s̓ look atthe three tools that helped me heal my own gut biome.

Tool 1: L. Reuteri

Lactobasillus reuteri (say that five times fast!) is a bacterial strain found inour gut biome. L. reuteri is unique in that it occupies our upper intestine.(Most of the strains in our gut biome occupy our lower intestine.) It is one ofthe few bacteria native to our gut, and it can be found in the digestivesystems of many vertebrate animals.

This little bacteria is great for our health, providing a host of benefits. Itboosts the immune system by lowering inflammatory cytokines andimproving T-cell function. It heals “leaky gut” by repairing the holes in thegut lining that cause this condition, and it kills pathogenic “bad” bacteria bycreating antimicrobial compounds. In short, L. reuteri basically addressesevery major component of gut health except for colonization of new “good”bacteria (other than L. reuteri itself).

It also has one particularly unique benefit: It boosts the neuropeptideoxytocin. Does that name sound familiar? It should. Oxytocin is oftenreferred to as the “love hormone,” because our bodies release it when wehug, kiss, partake in other romantic activities, or even play with our dog.

Feeling cuddly is all well and good, but the benefits of oxytocin go farbeyond this:

It turns you into Wolverine: Well, not really, but increased oxytocincauses accelerated wound healing.You feel less hungry, and more of another “H” word: Oxytocindecreases appetite via increased libido.Happy relationships: Oxytocin facilitates improved social bonding.

And that s̓ not all. L. reuteri has even more benefits, including:

Better hair and skin: L. reuteri induces “radiant hair and skin” inmammals.Decreased pain perception: L. reuteri reduces perceived pain inrodents.Increased Vitamin D: One Canadian study found that L. reuteriboosted Vitamin D by 25.5 percent—the first time an oral probiotic hasdone this, according to the authors.Possible correlation with increased sex drive and testosterone inmen: One study found that L. reuteri induced hair growth in rodents viaincreased testosterone.

How to Make L. reuteri Probiotic Yogurt

Hopefully Iʼve convinced you that L. reuteri is good stuff, so here s̓ how youcan get it: make yogurt.

You can, of course, take L. reuteri in pill form, but these supplements containfar less of the strain than youʼll get from making yogurt out of it. Plus, L.reuteri yogurt is thick, creamy, and borderline cheese-like. Honestly, it s̓delicious, and it s̓ not that hard to make. Here s̓ what youʼll need:

e. 10 Biogaia Gastrus L. reuteri tablets: These tablets contain two of themost well-researched strains of L. reuteri, but the company that makesthis product has a patent, which means that if you want these strains,youʼll have to buy it. Thankfully, a 30-tablet pack is only $30 and willlast you a very long time for our purposes.

g. 6 tbsp Inulin (or another prebiotic such as unmodified potatostarch): This acts as “food” for the bacteria to use to multiply andcolonize the yogurt.

h. 32 oz organic half and half, cream, milk, etc.: I normally donʼt

recommend consuming dairy, but in this case it should be okay for mostpeople. L. reuteri will consume the lactose in the milk in order tomultiply, and the end result will be lactose-free. You can use coconutmilk instead, but the process is a lot more involved and finicky. You canfind a link to a coconut-based recipe at the end of this section.

To make the yogurt, crush the L. reuteri tablets into fine powder using amortar and pestle or two spoons. Blend the 6 tablespoons of Inulin into thehalf and half, milk, or cream using a stick blender. I prefer to use half and halfor thicker dairy products in order to render a more solid, less runny endproduct. Mix the 10 crushed tablets of L. reuteri into the blend using a fork.

Move the mixture to an oven-safe container and use a yogurt maker, fooddehydrator, or other similar device to “cook” the mixture at 100 degreesFahrenheit for 36 hours.

Donʼt have a yogurt maker? No worries; you can use your oven. Open thedoor and turn the oven on to 250 degrees for a minute or two. Youʼll knowit s̓ ready to use when you place your hand inside the oven and it feels like ahot summer day. Turn the oven off, put your mixture inside, and close thedoor. Then, every four hours, open the door and turn the oven on until theinside once again feels like a hot summer day. This should take about aminute at 250 degrees. If youʼre worried about it getting too hot, use a meatthermometer to check that the yogurt mixture is between 95 and 115degrees.

Once your yogurt is finished, you can make new batches by using a fewtablespoons of yogurt from the first batch instead of the crushed Biogaiatablets. Subsequent batches are usually thicker.

Important note: At 120 degrees or higher, L. reuteri dies off rapidly. This isusually a bigger problem with yogurt makers, as many of them areinconsistent and donʼt let you set a temperature. If you use such a device,it s̓ best to find something that has a manual temperature control, and to use

a thermometer to make sure it is accurate.

My experience: I first tried L. reuteri while in a “stalemate” with my chronicdisease. Iʼd been improving for some time but had spent a month or sofeeling stuck with some anxiety and fatigue.

After taking this bacteria, I experienced two profound effects. First, I saw agreat reduction in food cravings. L. reuteri yogurt really is amazing forcurbing hunger, and it s̓ a great addition to a keto diet when youʼre trying toavoid carbs, as it clears cravings as well.

Second, I just felt happier. I got my energy back, and my lingering fatigueand anxiety died down, but mainly I just felt happy. This is likely because ofL. reuteri s̓ oxytocin-boosting effects, but it surprised me nevertheless.

Bonus: Dairy-Free Coconut Yogurt

You can make L. reuteri yogurt without dairy by using coconut milk or cream,but the process is a bit more involved.

First, you may need to get a dehydrator or high-end yogurt maker, ascoconut milk ferments closer to 115 degrees Fahrenheit—dangerously closeto the 120 degrees at which L. reuteri starts to die off.

Second, you will need more ingredients. With milk products, L. reuteriferments by consuming the lactose sugars found in dairy. For coconutyogurt, we need to add this sugar ourselves.

Weʼve still got a lot of article left and two more methods for healing your gutthat I want to address, so instead of detailing how to make the coconutversion of L. reuteri yogurt, Iʼll direct you to my favorite recipe, which iscourtesy of a forum member named Daphne at undoctored.com andincludes detailed instructions for making her version of this yogurt.

Troubleshooting

If you donʼt see thickening in the yogurt by the 16-hour mark, youryogurt is either too cold or has become too hot and the L. reuteri hasdied. I ran into this problem in some of my early batches when I wasusing a cheap yogurt maker from Amazon. Little did I know that thething was only getting to 87 degrees Fahrenheit.For a thicker product in general, use cream instead of half and half.Thickness will also increase with subsequent batches.The first batch is sometimes a bit runny or curdled. Donʼt worry: youcan make your next batch using a couple tablespoons of the yogurtfrom the first batch as a replacement for the Biogaia tablets, and theend product will be much thicker. Frankly, the second and later batchesare always my favorite. You can continue making the yogurt this way aslong as a batch doesnʼt go bad from being left uneaten too long.Be sure to include enough prebiotic fiber. If you use 6 tablespoons ofInulin, you should be fine. However, you must be sure to use some kindof prebiotic fiber. If you omit this step, your yogurt will not turn out well.(This can be more of an issue with the coconut version.) You might haveto play around a bit before you get a feel for it, but once you do itsuccessfully, youʼll be able to replicate the process with ease.

Method 2: Lignite Extracts

Photo by Eddie Kopp on Unsplash

Okay, “lignite extracts” are the technical term for the next product weʼregoing to discuss. However, here s̓ an easier way to think about it: itʼs dirtwater. Weʼll come back to this idea in a bit.

Restore is a product developed by one of the few triple-board-certifiedphysicians in the country, Dr. Zach Bush, whose recent research has beenon cellular communication (as in communication by bacteria and humancells, not telecommunication) and redox signaling.

Redox signaling is a process of oxidation and reduction that occurs at themost basic levels of biology, literally involving the transporting of electrons,and forms a communication network—not for our cells, but for ourmitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy sources of cells in both bacteriaand human cells, and are one of the oldest living mechanisms on the planet.

How is this relevant to gut health? Well, basically, redox signaling is involved

in your gut biome s̓ bacteria communicating and coordinating with eachother. If bad bacteria are increasing or certain cells are malfunctioning,“communication” within mitochondria can trigger processes to fix theseproblems, such as killing malfunctioning cells or making new ones.

This is deep and complicated biology, but all you really need to know is thatthis communication structure exists at the most basic level of biology, andthat it can become compromised.

In the gut, this compromised signaling seems to be involved with thedeterioration of tight junctions between cells, which causes holes in theintestinal wall and leads to the condition known as leaky gut.

This brings us to lignite extracts, a fancy term for materials present in thesoil (read: dirt). In soil, bacteria communicate using redox signaling throughthe materials present there. Basically, it s̓ a place where we can study andreplicate redox signaling.

With the right ratios and blend, solutions of these lignite, or soil, extracts areable to restore redox signaling for the bacteria in our gut. In turn, this repairscellsʼ tight junctions, allowing cellular communication to be restored.

This is cutting-edge stuff, and there s̓ not a ton of research about theseproducts. As far as I know, there are only two products on the market thataddress redox signaling. The first, ASEA, is sold by a network marketingcompany and targets the mitochondria. The second, Restore, is Zach Bush s̓product, and it targets the gut biome and restores tight junctions betweencells.

Both of these products, but especially Restore, were paramount in myefforts to regain my health when I was fighting the effects of HPA-axisdisregulation, a state of overdrive fight-or-flight response brought on by toomuch stress (in my case, overtraining).

What is so powerful about a tool that focuses on redox signaling is that byaddressing the most foundational levels of biology, you can effectivelyimprove the entire biological system above them.

For me, the effect of this approach was so strong that for some time Icouldnʼt use ASEA because I had detox reactions to it. I couldnʼt tolerate ituntil I was about halfway through a multiple-month heavy-metal detoxprogram called True Cellular Detox.

Restore, on the other hand, turned off anxiety and panic feelings and allowedme to not only start working full-time for the first time in months, but totravel to Roanoke for an outdoor educator academic conference despitehaving been bedridden mere weeks prior.

This isnʼt medical advice, and if you have medical issues, then work with aphysician to resolve them. However, Restore is safe and, considering thatmost of us have gut health problems of some kind, it s̓ a great idea for mostof us.

And yes: most of the good research on this product comes from the peoplewho make it, and there is the possibility of biased or skewed data. However, Iwas helped greatly by Restore, and if it works the way its makers claim itdoes, then it s̓ truly one of the best things you can take for your gut biomeand long-term health as a whole.

Furthermore, Iʼve also listened to several interviews with Dr. Bush, and it s̓always been my feeling that he is a man of intelligence. His explanations ofthe science behind Restore are clear and make sense, and he seems to trulywant to make people healthier.

For example, his team has applied for a grant from the National Institute ofDiabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for further double-blindresearch with the goal of making Restore a widely available and clinicallyrelevant product. As far as I can tell, they would love for other parties to

research their product, but in the meantime, since this science is new,theyʼve been doing it themselves.

You can get Restore on Amazon and from the company s̓ website.

The following is a list of resources for learning more about Restore viaresearch and interviews of Dr. Bush, including a clinical trial and theaforementioned clinical grant application:

Podcast interview of Dr. Zach Bush on the Ben Greenfield FitnessPodcast (transcript)Scholarly article on protection against gluten-mediated tight junctioninjuryScholarly article on protective qualities of lignite extracts for tightjunctionsRestore clinical trialRestore clinical grant application for widespread use as a treatment forchronic disease

Method 3: The Elemental Diet

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

So far weʼve discussed the importance of increasing the bacteria in our gut.Most of the methods weʼve talked about are used to increase good bacteriain our biome. However, much of the clinical data show another side to guthealth: the need to reduce bacteria in the gut biome. This is because manypeople s̓ gut health problems stem from bacterial overgrowth, which you canthink of as stubborn colonies of pathogenic “bad” bacteria.

But wait, donʼt we want to avoid killing bacteria in our gut? Isnʼt the goal toincrease biodiversity and the content of our gut biome? Yes, in the long run,but think of your biome like a garden. Pathogenic bad bacteria are like weedsthat prevent diversity and cause problems, while otherwise good bacteriacan become overgrown. Addressing bacterial overgrowth is like pulling the“weeds” of bad bacteria and trimming the “hedges” of overgrown goodbacteria.

Here comes the elemental diet, a hypo-allergenic, liquid diet that behaveslike a long-term “fast” that starves pathogenic gut bacteria. Researchexamining the benefits of gut biome diversity has shown that simple fastsincrease biodiversity and the prevalence of good bacteria. Elemental dietssimply speed up this process by allowing you to “fast” for much longer, up tothree weeks for some people, by consuming food in its elemental form.

Before we get into the details of elemental diets, I want to take a moment toaddress the idea of dietary fiber. Iʼve been hearing that fiber is good for thedigestive system for as long as I can remember, but elemental diets andfasting are fiber-free, so what gives?

First of all, fasting is a metabolic state that we entered more often in ancienttimes than we do now. Even if fiber really is good for the gut, our biome maysimply have adapted in response to these periods of fasting, which we canthink of as a sort of reset button.

Second, I think fiber isnʼt as important as people believe. Dr. Michael Ruscio(who I mentioned earlier in this article) mentions in his book Healthy Gut,Healthy You that the only benefit of fiber supported by strong research is itsprotection against digestive or colorectal cancers. Even then, he points outthat there is a ton of other data implying that fiber intake has no positivebenefit for these conditions.

When we take a look at both sides of the evidence, itʼs clear to see fibercan be a double-edged sword. It may help some, and it may harm others.For high-risk diseases like digestive tract cancers, fiber has not beenconsistently shown to help.

For metabolic conditions like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, itappears eating to control blood sugar (which often happens via a lower-fiber diet) is more important than eating to increase fiber. For those withconstipation, there is a good chance upping your fiber will help youbecome more regular.

For those with IBS or IBD, fiber may or may not be helpful, so itʼs worthcautiously trying to increase your intake. (Chapter 10, loc. 3226)

The 55 studies, meta-analyses, and academic papers he uses to back up hisargument can be found at location 3243 of the Kindle edition of the book, atthe end of chapter 10.

Iʼm not here to tell you fiber is bad for you or good for you. Iʼm just sayingthat I donʼt think it s̓ a relevant concern when it comes to long fasts or theelemental diet.

What Does an Elemental Diet Look Like?

Earlier I mentioned that elemental diets involve consuming food in itselemental form. This simply means food that is already broken down into adigested form. For example, when you digest protein, your body breaks itdown into amino acids. Therefore, the “elemental” form of protein is aminoacids.

The foods consumed in these diets used to have to be made at home, butnowadays, they are offered premade by multiple sources, includingprescription-quality elemental diets such as Vivonex Plus.

This option has been well studied and works well, but the taste is difficult forsome to get past. This brings us to a second type of antimicrobial diet: thesemi-elemental diet.

Semi-elemental diets, also known as polymeric diets, are very similar toelemental diets except that their ingredients are not 100 percent digested.This makes them generally more filling and palatable. In theory, a fullelemental diet would be more effective due to smaller particle size, butclinical studies do not show this to be the case. Semi-elemental diets appearto work just as well as elemental diets—and they taste good too.

What Are Elemental/Semi-Elemental Diets Good For?

These diets are primarily used for the purpose of fighting bacterialovergrowth, but what does that mean clinically? Here are some specificconditions the elemental diet has been used for:

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO): In a 2004 study, a 14-dayelemental diet normalized SIBO breath test results in 80 percent of a 93-patient population, and 63 percent experienced a reduction in symptoms ofirritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Crohnʼs and ulcerative colitis: Many studies show that elemental diets areequally as effective as anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids intreating Crohn s̓ and inflammatory bowel disease, although some studiesshow them to be less effective. If avoiding drugs is important to you, you cantry an elemental diet, and if that isnʼt enough, then you could trycorticosteroids.

Weight loss: There has been little to no research on weight loss and theelemental diet, but in Healthy Gut, Healthy You, Dr. Ruscio notes that hispatients tend to improve their weight problems in proportion to the degree towhich the elemental diet heals their gut (Chapter 18, loc. 6381). One clinicalstudy also shows positive weight changes in individuals who used a semi-elemental diet to treat Crohn s̓.

Celiac disease: The elemental diet has been shown to repair intestinaldamage and reduce symptoms in those with celiac disease (an extremereaction to gluten in wheat) in cases in which a gluten-free diet did not.

How to Use an Elemental Diet

The elemental diet can be a powerful tool for gut healing for many of themost stubborn conditions. In this article, Iʼm simply interested in the fact thatit heals the gut, which by extension results in health improvements rangingfrom weight loss to improved focus to better mood.

This is a more powerful tool than the previous methods Iʼve addressed, andin the words of a great philosopher, with great power comes greatresponsibility. Before you start an elemental diet, it is worth knowing when touse it and when not to use it.

This is really just about asking yourself if you are doing the elemental dietcasually, like I do, for performance boosts, or to fight specific issues with thehelp of a clinician.

First things first: If you are not working with a clinician and doing labwork, then you should only do the elemental diet for four days at amaximum.

Here s̓ the thing: elemental diets can be maintained for up to three weeks inproportion with the severity of your gut health problems if you are workingwith a medical professional. They operate by starving bad bacteria in yourgut and trimming overgrowths of good bacteria.

However, if you donʼt have much bad bacteria, a long elemental diet couldbe the wrong tool for the job, and furthermore, three weeks on a diet that isessentially a modified fast could have other negative impacts.

This is why I suggest that you only follow the diet for a maximum of four daysif you are just looking for performance improvements and are not workingwith a clinician.

My reasoning is that many people can perform a four-day fast, and anelemental diet is just like a fast plus nutrients. Many people experiment withfasting without doctor supervision and without issue for periods of up to fourdays.

Caveat: If you have severe health issues, you should always work with aclinician before doing a multiple-day fast, elemental diet, or anythingsimilar.

Assuming, however, that you are a healthy individual who is simply seekingto improve your body and mind, a four-day fast is hardly extreme.Furthermore, youʼll be getting nutrients as part of an elemental diet. Thisdiet isnʼt intended to starve you—just the bad bacteria in your gut.Consequently, it s̓ generally easier than a straight fast. And if you find youʼrehaving a hard time, then just stop. Go back to eating normally, and comeback again later with supervision and a purpose.

Last, it s̓ good practice to think of the elemental diet as a one-time reset.You donʼt need to do it all the time. This is what I did, and I experienced lessinflammation and fewer GI problems when I ate “cheat” foods like grain,dairy, or candy. I also havenʼt felt a return of these issues despite havingdone the diet months ago.

If you feel that you still have some gut health issues or other areas you wantto improve that you think could be related to gut health, then do anothertwo- to four-day reset in one to three months, or do some testing and workwith a clinician for a one- to three-week elemental diet.

As I said, Iʼve only done the elemental diet one time, and I noticed majorimprovements in my energy, focus, and sensitivity to “cheat” foods. I may doanother in two to three months, but for now, I still feel like Iʼm in an improvedhealth space without it. Furthermore, I use other gut-healing techniques andeat a good diet, so it should be harder for bacteria overgrowths to reform inmy gut.

Elemental and Semi-Elemental Diet Options

e. Elemental Heal by Dr. Michael Ruscio: Elemental Heal is my preferredproduct and the one Iʼve used. It is a semi-elemental diet and isrecommended by Dr. Ruscio. It also has an awesome descriptiondetailing the ways you can most effectively use the product, either as ashort reset, a long-term diet, or a hybrid diet.

g. Vivonex Plus: Mentioned earlier, Vivonex is a clinical-grade elemental

diet that has been very well studied. It is a full elemental diet, so flavor islacking, but its reliability cannot be argued. I trust Dr. Ruscio s̓ product,but if you are worried about reliability and clinical results, then Vivonexmay be for you.

h. Home Made Elemental Diet: For those experimenters out there, Dr.Ruscio has a guide for making your own elemental diet. I prefer to justbuy a premade product, but making your own elemental diet at homecan allow greater flexibility and may be less expensive (I havenʼtanalyzed this personally). If youʼre a do-it-yourself type or just have adesire to try out this approach, this guide is a great option.

o. Fasting: Weʼve talked about fasting a few times, so Iʼd like to include itas an option here. Fasting will have the same effect as an elemental dieton killing pathogenic bacteria—at least in theory. I say “in theory”because perhaps your body may kill bacteria better on an elementaldiet, but I donʼt understand how this would occur. Iʼd suggest fasting ifyouʼre already interested in the topic. However, donʼt try to fast for threeweeks like you would on a long elemental diet. Most people only fast fora week maximum, which is considered extreme even in the pro-fastingcommunity. For the purpose of this article, you could do a two- to four-day fast instead of an elemental diet, but it s̓ important to read up on thesubject first and do it right. Iʼm including it here just so you know that itcan kill bacterial overgrowths too.

Additional Comments and Conclusion

Gut health is a big topic, and I wanted to provide you with information aboutthree powerful tools that many are unaware of. However, there is much,much more you can learn and do to improve your gut health. From learningmore about the gut-brain connection to discovering how diet influences thebiome, there is an absolute ton we didnʼt cover today.

This is why Iʼd like to humbly suggest checking out another article on Better

Humans by another great health coach: Maria Cross, MSc. Her article “HealYour Gut, Heal Your Mind” goes into depth on how the gut affects our health,including mental conditions like depression.

She further includes information on the many factors involved in our guthealth, such as diet, allergens, and even stress, as well as how you candiagnose gut health problems using testing.

The only quick add-on Iʼll include is that the best gut health testing availablethat I am aware of is Viome by Naveen Jain, a billionaire philanthropist whoowns multiple companies, including Moon Express, which is the first privatecompany in the world to gain permission to land on the moon from the U.S.government. Viome is an equally impressive company dedicated to helpingsolve the world s̓ health problems, and Naveen s̓ team and the equipmentbehind this project are unparalleled.

My Experience with the Gut Biome

My journey to both heal and become my best self has involved manydifferent therapies and trial-and-error methods. From long-term heavy-metal detox to a ketogenic diet to photobiomodulation and light therapy, Iʼvedone a ton of different things.

Of all the things Iʼve tried, gut healing has been a constant help, and each ofthe methods Iʼve discussed here was paramount to my improvement. In fact,Restore, the product I recommend in method 2, was the first thing thatallowed me to start working full-time after almost six months of feeling tootired and anxious to do so.

Health and performance are complex and multifactorial issues. However, byaddressing the foundations of health, we can usually improve everythingelse. So far, I know of little else that is more foundational than our gut biome.

Whether you have issues youʼd like to improve, such as lack of energy, focus

problems, or mood instability, or youʼre already a top performer and are justlooking for an edge, I think addressing gut health may be the best and mostimportant place to start.

As always, thank you for the support, and I hope this article proves valuableguidance for your personal health and performance journey.

Better HumansBetter Humans is a collection of the world's mosttrustworthy writing on human potential and selfimprovement by coaches, academics, and aggressiveself-experimenters. Articles are based on deep personalexperience, science, and research. No fluff, bookreports, or listicles.

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Rush Simonson