Episode 46

full
Published on:

6th Jan 2025

#46: Unlocking Intrinsic Potential: Alex Martinez on Transforming Gut-Brain-Immune Health and Redefining Innovation in Medicine

What if the key to unlocking your health potential lies in the Gut-Brain-Immune Axis?

In this episode of Beyond The Pills, we explore how innovation and science are converging to create breakthroughs in healthcare. Our guest, Alex Martinez, CEO and Co-founder of Intrinsic Medicine is revolutionizing the way chronic conditions like Parkinson’s Disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and other immune and microbiome-related disorders are treated.

Alex shares the groundbreaking work of Intrinsic Medicine, where human milk biology is being leveraged to address the root causes of Gut-Brain-Immune Axis (GIBA) disorders. He explains how this innovative approach is poised to transform the healthcare landscape, offering hope to millions affected by these conditions.

Beyond his work at Intrinsic Medicine, Alex dives into his passion for empowering the next wave of healthcare leaders. He discusses the importance of fostering diversity in the health tech space, supporting women- and minority-led startups and driving forward holistic and inclusive solutions.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking actionable insights into the future of healthcare, leadership, and innovation.

Key Takeaways:

The Gut-Brain-Immune Connection:

Alex breaks down how the GIBA impacts physical and mental health. From chronic inflammation to neurological disorders, understanding this intricate connection is essential for developing holistic treatments that address root causes rather than symptoms.

The Power of Human Milk Biology:

Intrinsic Medicine is at the forefront of leveraging human milk biology to restore balance within the immune system and microbiome. Alex shares the science behind this revolutionary approach and its potential to transform treatments for disorders like Parkinson’s Disease and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).

Revolutionizing Healthcare with Innovation:

Alex highlights how science and technology are converging to drive progress in healthcare. His entrepreneurial journey showcases the importance of adopting innovative approaches to tackle long-standing medical challenges.

Fostering a Diverse Healthcare Ecosystem:

Alex emphasizes the need for diversity in leadership and innovation. By supporting women- and minority-led healthcare startups, he’s paving the way for a more inclusive and forward-thinking industry.

Intrinsic Healing is the Future:

The conversation concludes with Alex’s vision for a healthcare system that prioritizes personalized, intrinsic solutions. He inspires listeners to think beyond conventional methods and embrace new ways of healing that address the root causes of disease.

🎧 Don’t miss this insightful conversation with Alex Martinez. Whether you're an entrepreneur, healthcare professional, or simply curious about the future of health, this episode will leave you inspired and informed.

Stream now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and start your journey toward unlocking your intrinsic potential in 2025!

Contact Alex Martinez:

📌 Learn more about Alex’s work at Intrinsic Medicine: https://www.intrinsicmedicine.com/team/alex-martinez/

📧 Connect with Alex on LinkedIn: Alex Martinez LinkedIn

Transcript
Speaker:

Hello, hello, everyone.

Speaker:

Welcome to this episode of

Speaker:

Beyond the Pills.

Speaker:

I am Josh Remini, the unpharmacist.

Speaker:

And today's guest,

Speaker:

I'm super excited about this,

Speaker:

is Alex Martinez.

Speaker:

He is the CEO and co-founder

Speaker:

of Intrinsic Medicine.

Speaker:

We're going to talk a lot

Speaker:

about these things called HMOs today.

Speaker:

So Alex is, like I said,

Speaker:

the co-founder and CEO of

Speaker:

Intrinsic Medicine.

Speaker:

He is a patient, an entrepreneur,

Speaker:

business advisor,

Speaker:

and healthcare industry

Speaker:

leader committed to

Speaker:

transforming how the

Speaker:

gut-brain immune axis

Speaker:

disorders are diagnosed and treated.

Speaker:

He's driven to lead positive

Speaker:

change within the healthcare industry.

Speaker:

He co-founded Intrinsic

Speaker:

Medicine to leverage human

Speaker:

milk biology in

Speaker:

transforming diseases

Speaker:

caused by immune and

Speaker:

microbiome dysregulation.

Speaker:

Things like Parkinson's,

Speaker:

juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Speaker:

I love talking things idiopathic.

Speaker:

We're going to drive into that one.

Speaker:

IBS, IBD, autism,

Speaker:

and other gut brain disorders.

Speaker:

So in addition to his work,

Speaker:

Alex is working with

Speaker:

emerging women and minority

Speaker:

led healthcare startups.

Speaker:

I think that's really amazing.

Speaker:

And

Speaker:

This includes his role as a

Speaker:

business advisor for women

Speaker:

in pain management

Speaker:

solutions with Oncov Health

Speaker:

and serving as a limited

Speaker:

partner and advisor to Coyote Ventures,

Speaker:

which is a femtech venture

Speaker:

focused on women's health.

Speaker:

He's also a business advisor

Speaker:

for Thrive Healthcare,

Speaker:

a platform technology that

Speaker:

turns common spaces into

Speaker:

managed residential

Speaker:

facilities into on-demand

Speaker:

community health and wellness hubs.

Speaker:

Oh, that's kind of interesting.

Speaker:

And in a previous life and incarnation,

Speaker:

Alex was a director of

Speaker:

corporate development for

Speaker:

Ionis Pharmaceuticals and

Speaker:

an associate attorney at Wilson Sonsini.

Speaker:

He received his doctorate at

Speaker:

the University of Michigan

Speaker:

Law School and his Bachelor

Speaker:

of Arts at Health and Science Societies,

Speaker:

a public health

Speaker:

concentration from the

Speaker:

University of Pennsylvania.

Speaker:

Welcome, welcome, Alex.

Speaker:

Hi, Josh.

Speaker:

Thanks for having me, man.

Speaker:

That's amazing bio.

Speaker:

So pharma guy turned lawyer

Speaker:

guy turned intrinsic wellness guy.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

We got a lot to talk about today.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So tell a little,

Speaker:

tell some people a little

Speaker:

bit about who you are and

Speaker:

what you're doing.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So, you know,

Speaker:

we have to go kind of way

Speaker:

back here because I think that's,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

The bio is all the in-between part,

Speaker:

but where I am today is

Speaker:

really a function of kind

Speaker:

of where I started, right?

Speaker:

So at the end of the day,

Speaker:

I'm a farm boy from rural

Speaker:

Maryland whose first job

Speaker:

was working with autistic kids.

Speaker:

So first job other than

Speaker:

working with animals and raising things.

Speaker:

growing things and taking

Speaker:

care of ecosystems was

Speaker:

working with children with special needs.

Speaker:

And so, you know,

Speaker:

starting that at an early age, really,

Speaker:

so there's a couple things there.

Speaker:

First and foremost,

Speaker:

I kind of fell in love with

Speaker:

the intelligence of nature.

Speaker:

at an early age, I recognized that it was,

Speaker:

um,

Speaker:

it was the most important early life

Speaker:

teacher for me is

Speaker:

recognizing how there's so

Speaker:

much collaboration in,

Speaker:

in the natural world.

Speaker:

Um, and, and the, the,

Speaker:

the aspect of husbandry, right.

Speaker:

Uh, of,

Speaker:

of creating health and stability and.

Speaker:

and sort of prosperity for

Speaker:

all members of those

Speaker:

communities right through

Speaker:

proper husbandry and then

Speaker:

you know the second

Speaker:

component you know

Speaker:

externalized is working you

Speaker:

know foundationally at a

Speaker:

formative age in a context

Speaker:

where when people would

Speaker:

tell when I would tell

Speaker:

people about like what I

Speaker:

was doing they say oh that

Speaker:

must be so hard and I was

Speaker:

always perplexed

Speaker:

because it's felt so easy

Speaker:

and fulfilling to me to do

Speaker:

that and show up there and

Speaker:

to be working with children

Speaker:

with special needs,

Speaker:

in particular children with autism,

Speaker:

who often had limited verbal capacities.

Speaker:

And that really kind of shaped my desire.

Speaker:

It was certainly an anchor

Speaker:

point of what I wanted to do,

Speaker:

because when you work hands-on,

Speaker:

with a living being and

Speaker:

you're able to create a

Speaker:

positive benefit on a day-to-day basis,

Speaker:

that's the most fulfilling

Speaker:

thing in the world.

Speaker:

And it keeps you anchored

Speaker:

when then you say,

Speaker:

how can I do this at scale?

Speaker:

Because at the end of the day,

Speaker:

my journey is just a matter of saying,

Speaker:

wow, I love helping people.

Speaker:

How do I do that at scale?

Speaker:

How do I amplify what I'm doing?

Speaker:

I'm hearing the

Speaker:

entrepreneurial part of you already,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

And so tell people a little

Speaker:

bit about intrinsic medicine,

Speaker:

this intrinsic wellness

Speaker:

that you've created,

Speaker:

because I think the

Speaker:

backstory is going to come in.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

Because people...

Speaker:

I love that.

Speaker:

I didn't know where you were

Speaker:

going with that, but I did totally.

Speaker:

It makes so much sense

Speaker:

because in this journey of life,

Speaker:

and we'll talk about it,

Speaker:

like your first freaking

Speaker:

job already showed you who

Speaker:

you were going to be.

Speaker:

when you are here, right?

Speaker:

You didn't know it at the time,

Speaker:

but you were here to serve

Speaker:

that community and it's

Speaker:

gone full circle all the way up here.

Speaker:

So tell people a little bit

Speaker:

about your company and what

Speaker:

this is because we got to

Speaker:

get into this thing called

Speaker:

gut health and this whole

Speaker:

paradigm shift of this West

Speaker:

world versus where we're

Speaker:

going with these functional approaches.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker:

And so-

Speaker:

you know let's yeah so let's

Speaker:

let's skip ahead so what is

Speaker:

intrinsic medicine doing so

Speaker:

what we are doing is as I

Speaker:

said fell in love with the

Speaker:

intelligence of nature and

Speaker:

so my primary experience in

Speaker:

biotech at ionis I was

Speaker:

developing something called

Speaker:

antisense therapeutics and

Speaker:

so these were these are

Speaker:

literally nucleic

Speaker:

acid-based therapeutics that

Speaker:

could directly inhibit mRNA.

Speaker:

So these are genetic medicines.

Speaker:

And so that's what I had

Speaker:

spent most of my time on.

Speaker:

And it was really focused on

Speaker:

like rare diseases where

Speaker:

there's kind of one gene,

Speaker:

let's change how that gene

Speaker:

expresses a protein and see

Speaker:

if we can impact a disease.

Speaker:

And a lot of that, you know, while,

Speaker:

you know, there were some,

Speaker:

there was in fact, you know,

Speaker:

I had a privilege of

Speaker:

working on an amazing drug,

Speaker:

which is the first drug

Speaker:

approved for spinal muscular atrophy,

Speaker:

where children don't

Speaker:

produce a necessary protein supplement.

Speaker:

um and you know in the most

Speaker:

severe cases they don't

Speaker:

live past age two yeah um

Speaker:

with with the the drug

Speaker:

spinraza that we worked on

Speaker:

you could give it to

Speaker:

pre-symptomatic babies and

Speaker:

they would literally

Speaker:

develop normally and they'd

Speaker:

be a normal toddler walking

Speaker:

and thriving so that was

Speaker:

that was an it's there was

Speaker:

an opportunity to work on

Speaker:

really kind of that cutting

Speaker:

edge but then we also realized

Speaker:

at that same time point that

Speaker:

while we were serving very

Speaker:

small groups of people,

Speaker:

the technology of that company,

Speaker:

and then by extension,

Speaker:

the technology that,

Speaker:

that pharma industry as a

Speaker:

whole was putting all of

Speaker:

their R and D resources for

Speaker:

really only serve these tiny,

Speaker:

teeny tiny patient populations.

Speaker:

And they left all of us

Speaker:

idiopathic chronic disease

Speaker:

patients with really stagnant

Speaker:

therapeutic options with nothing.

Speaker:

Let's slow down on that

Speaker:

because I think there's

Speaker:

some nuggets in that that

Speaker:

people don't realize.

Speaker:

Because one, pharma,

Speaker:

because I'm a pharmacist

Speaker:

and I've been in community

Speaker:

pharmacy since I was sixteen.

Speaker:

It was my first job, right?

Speaker:

So I've seen everything in

Speaker:

the pharma industry and people coming.

Speaker:

And what we're talking about here is not,

Speaker:

there's two focuses.

Speaker:

Like one is everything for everybody.

Speaker:

And then the other one is

Speaker:

hyper personalized down to

Speaker:

this specific gene of a point.

Speaker:

Oh, oh, oh,

Speaker:

one percent of the population drug.

Speaker:

And what I heard from you

Speaker:

was cure these things that cured this,

Speaker:

this very unique specific thing that are,

Speaker:

can be extremely cost

Speaker:

prohibitive in some cases,

Speaker:

but moving from that

Speaker:

perspective of pharma

Speaker:

focusing on these hyper,

Speaker:

hyper specific specialized things.

Speaker:

And then it sounds to me

Speaker:

like there was this aha moment for you.

Speaker:

This aha of what we're doing

Speaker:

technologically and the

Speaker:

thought process of all this

Speaker:

is becoming something that

Speaker:

could be scalable and used

Speaker:

in different philosophies.

Speaker:

Talk a little bit about that

Speaker:

because when you said hyper,

Speaker:

it really struck a chord with me.

Speaker:

Going down that rabbit hole

Speaker:

that doesn't affect a ton

Speaker:

of people but is pretty

Speaker:

successful to opening that up.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so you always need a reference point.

Speaker:

And so it provided me the

Speaker:

reference point because

Speaker:

that was when I saw the

Speaker:

structural components and

Speaker:

the financial incentives

Speaker:

and seeing how those were directing R&D.

Speaker:

So it was not based on

Speaker:

market needs and gaps.

Speaker:

It was based on market opportunities and

Speaker:

risk-adjusted net present

Speaker:

value calculations.

Speaker:

And with ultra rare diseases,

Speaker:

you have a much lower

Speaker:

research and development spend,

Speaker:

you have expedited pathways to market,

Speaker:

you support extreme pricing.

Speaker:

We're talking about drugs

Speaker:

that cost over half a

Speaker:

million dollars a year, right?

Speaker:

And risk benefit,

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

These,

Speaker:

the drug can actually have very

Speaker:

substantial side effects

Speaker:

and still get approved,

Speaker:

still be the first line therapy.

Speaker:

Um, and so.

Speaker:

Whoa,

Speaker:

you're telling me that pharma is not

Speaker:

really designing medicines for

Speaker:

the common good of

Speaker:

healthcare and wellness.

Speaker:

It's how fast can we do it?

Speaker:

We don't really care if it's

Speaker:

hurting us so much and how

Speaker:

much can we spend?

Speaker:

How much can we charge for it?

Speaker:

Is that what I just heard?

Speaker:

I'm saying that there is an equation

Speaker:

That basically there is a

Speaker:

financial tail that is

Speaker:

wagging the research and development dog.

Speaker:

I just think it's important

Speaker:

because coming from your industry,

Speaker:

the inside, people don't hear this stuff.

Speaker:

They don't hear,

Speaker:

I'm not trying to like

Speaker:

pinhole this or try to make

Speaker:

sure people are like looking bad,

Speaker:

but there's a specific

Speaker:

agenda around this that's

Speaker:

very business oriented.

Speaker:

Yeah, and that's what I want to say,

Speaker:

because a lot of the people

Speaker:

that I work with and worked with,

Speaker:

they woke up every day and they said,

Speaker:

I'm doing good.

Speaker:

I'm doing this for people in need,

Speaker:

for patients in need.

Speaker:

And so it's really just

Speaker:

understanding the systemic

Speaker:

framework that creates disparities,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Because,

Speaker:

and this is going back and saying,

Speaker:

you know, after, you know,

Speaker:

leaving the farm,

Speaker:

working with children with autism,

Speaker:

where did I go?

Speaker:

I went to the university of Pennsylvania,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

I,

Speaker:

I created my own major in health and

Speaker:

societies where I was able

Speaker:

to look at focus on public health,

Speaker:

but I was taking, um,

Speaker:

healthcare management course,

Speaker:

healthcare business courses

Speaker:

in the Wharton school.

Speaker:

Like, you know,

Speaker:

the best business school in the country,

Speaker:

um,

Speaker:

I was doing health economics.

Speaker:

I was understanding the

Speaker:

system at every level.

Speaker:

And so that's why it's

Speaker:

understanding the systems

Speaker:

and how they create disparities.

Speaker:

And so what my experience in

Speaker:

pharma was is we were

Speaker:

disproportionately serving

Speaker:

people because it worked

Speaker:

well with essentially a

Speaker:

financial algorithm,

Speaker:

a corporate finance

Speaker:

algorithm that was being rewarded

Speaker:

on,

Speaker:

on wall street and the paradox of it is

Speaker:

those rare diseases are

Speaker:

called orphan diseases.

Speaker:

You know this, and,

Speaker:

but we created almost a

Speaker:

large class of orphan in a

Speaker:

different use of the term abandoned, um,

Speaker:

chronic diseases.

Speaker:

Pharma R&D abandoned large

Speaker:

chronic diseases that we

Speaker:

all and our families were

Speaker:

most likely to suffer from.

Speaker:

And so I'm sitting there,

Speaker:

somebody who's been dealing with IBS,

Speaker:

atopic dermatitis since I

Speaker:

was a very young child,

Speaker:

and there are no good treatments for me.

Speaker:

and working in a stressful environment,

Speaker:

feeling those symptoms every day,

Speaker:

having that impact my

Speaker:

subjective experience.

Speaker:

And I was saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

Speaker:

who's gonna help us?

Speaker:

And it was also that aspect

Speaker:

of saying kind of the

Speaker:

leniency that comes with,

Speaker:

if you're developing for a severe, rare,

Speaker:

fatal disease,

Speaker:

the toxicities,

Speaker:

the side effects associated

Speaker:

with the modality get a lot

Speaker:

more leniency.

Speaker:

And I realized, hey,

Speaker:

actually that is the

Speaker:

impediment because that's

Speaker:

the biggest thing that

Speaker:

breaks that algorithm is

Speaker:

The risk benefit for these

Speaker:

larger chronic disorders is not there.

Speaker:

These things can't get

Speaker:

approved using the

Speaker:

technologies that they have applied.

Speaker:

And so I realized that the

Speaker:

ultimate ethical arbitration,

Speaker:

the ultimate ethical

Speaker:

arbitrage opportunity is to

Speaker:

find truly safe compounds.

Speaker:

And then I looked at all of

Speaker:

those chronic diseases and I said,

Speaker:

wait a second,

Speaker:

what do they have in common?

Speaker:

So immune dysregulation and dysbiosis.

Speaker:

Okay,

Speaker:

so now I have something to work with.

Speaker:

Now I have something to search for.

Speaker:

Safe and works through the

Speaker:

immune system and the microbiome.

Speaker:

Where do I find it?

Speaker:

So this is the good stuff here because,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

I'm functional medicine

Speaker:

certified as a pharmacist

Speaker:

and in the functional medicine world,

Speaker:

the first and last thing

Speaker:

they tell you is when in doubt,

Speaker:

treat the gut.

Speaker:

And we talk about this

Speaker:

because immune or like, you know,

Speaker:

large percent of our immune response,

Speaker:

a large percent of a lot of

Speaker:

things that our body does

Speaker:

autonomically is through

Speaker:

gut regulation or microbiome, you know,

Speaker:

not just the gut, but all,

Speaker:

all different areas.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

And so,

Speaker:

but I want to touch a little bit

Speaker:

because I don't know if

Speaker:

everyone picked up on it

Speaker:

because I really feel

Speaker:

strongly about when people

Speaker:

have purpose and they do

Speaker:

real good in the world,

Speaker:

it's usually through their

Speaker:

own transformations.

Speaker:

So you talked about your own

Speaker:

health issues and how you

Speaker:

got through them and then

Speaker:

it compelled you to move

Speaker:

and help others through that process,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

So talk to us a little bit

Speaker:

about how you got your story.

Speaker:

I want to know a little bit

Speaker:

about your story before we

Speaker:

dive into the microbiome a little bit.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And I mean,

Speaker:

part of it was when I made the

Speaker:

decision to jump and that I

Speaker:

wanted to be an entrepreneur,

Speaker:

I wanted to be making my own decisions.

Speaker:

So, you know, I quit a very stable job.

Speaker:

Everyone pretty much thought

Speaker:

I was crazy for doing it.

Speaker:

But it was again,

Speaker:

it was really driven by the.

Speaker:

having developed a strategy

Speaker:

for my assessment for my my

Speaker:

work as an insider and

Speaker:

realizing that there would

Speaker:

be a different way and I

Speaker:

need to be I needed to have

Speaker:

the freedom to to create my

Speaker:

own platform and the

Speaker:

paradox of of doing that is

Speaker:

when I left and I and I

Speaker:

stayed on as a consultant

Speaker:

helped them you know launch

Speaker:

a drug afterwards i

Speaker:

I had like my symptoms,

Speaker:

my GI symptoms got so bad.

Speaker:

I lost like forty five pounds.

Speaker:

Basically, I was eating every time I ate.

Speaker:

I would be like

Speaker:

incapacitated on the floor

Speaker:

with pain and had a ton of bloating and I

Speaker:

You know, the thought was that it was, oh,

Speaker:

it's probably a peptic ulcer.

Speaker:

Come on,

Speaker:

you're like some stressed out

Speaker:

corporate guy now starting a company,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

having your own consulting firm.

Speaker:

And I went in and I got

Speaker:

scanned and actually a mass

Speaker:

was found in my lower intestinal tract.

Speaker:

And so, you know,

Speaker:

I go in for a peptic ulcer

Speaker:

screening and then a

Speaker:

surgical oncologist walks in the door.

Speaker:

And all of this while doing, you know, uh,

Speaker:

you know, very kind of career, you know,

Speaker:

making a career altering

Speaker:

move where you're, you know,

Speaker:

usually hopefully you're

Speaker:

going to be at your absolute best, um, to,

Speaker:

to, to bring everything to the table.

Speaker:

And so I went through a really challenging,

Speaker:

uh, patient journey and, um,

Speaker:

the diagnostic tests.

Speaker:

So they, they tried to sample.

Speaker:

the mass in my,

Speaker:

in my abdomen were not able to get,

Speaker:

they were getting a cellular, you know,

Speaker:

debris.

Speaker:

They were not able to figure

Speaker:

out like what it was.

Speaker:

Is this, is this a malignancy?

Speaker:

Is this cancer?

Speaker:

Um, what is this?

Speaker:

And meanwhile, the symptoms persisted,

Speaker:

right.

Speaker:

And just got kind of scary, skinny.

Speaker:

Um, and all the while advancing, um,

Speaker:

you know, what,

Speaker:

what now is intrinsic medicine.

Speaker:

And eventually they had to do a, uh,

Speaker:

laparoscopic diagnosis,

Speaker:

which is they cut me open

Speaker:

to figure out what it was.

Speaker:

So, and, um, as it turned out, I, it was,

Speaker:

uh, an anatomical features, uh,

Speaker:

actually a duplication cyst

Speaker:

that had gone necrotic.

Speaker:

So at some point when I was a baby,

Speaker:

there was a,

Speaker:

basically, my GI tract duplicated.

Speaker:

And so there's basically a dead end in it.

Speaker:

And it had gone necrotic.

Speaker:

And so about a foot and a

Speaker:

half of my bowel was just

Speaker:

profoundly inflamed.

Speaker:

So I was basically having

Speaker:

reoccurring bowel impactions.

Speaker:

And that's what was driving the pain.

Speaker:

But they did approach it as

Speaker:

a potential malignancy.

Speaker:

So it removed lymph nodes,

Speaker:

blood vessels in the area.

Speaker:

resected my bowel, you know, shut me up,

Speaker:

sewed me all up.

Speaker:

And then, you know,

Speaker:

I was just kind of like on my own, right?

Speaker:

My microbiome had been

Speaker:

completely wiped out.

Speaker:

I just had an extreme surgery and,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

what I was told to do after

Speaker:

that was essentially like

Speaker:

go on the worst Western

Speaker:

diet you can imagine.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

What feels good.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

It's like,

Speaker:

it's literally like eat pancakes

Speaker:

and like wheat, like white bread.

Speaker:

Like,

Speaker:

and after my system being completely

Speaker:

flushed with a tremendous

Speaker:

course of antibiotics with

Speaker:

bowel prep and you know,

Speaker:

know first and foremost

Speaker:

that's just it's such a

Speaker:

humbling experience right

Speaker:

when you're there um

Speaker:

because I think one of the

Speaker:

things that happens in

Speaker:

pharma and I think it

Speaker:

happened in the especially

Speaker:

in the rare disease context

Speaker:

is there's another right

Speaker:

the rhetoric the rhetoric

Speaker:

works in you because like

Speaker:

you're like oh no I'm

Speaker:

helping this other right

Speaker:

And so when it's yourself

Speaker:

and you have that lived

Speaker:

experience and you're like, man,

Speaker:

everything I'm getting

Speaker:

sucks and like and I can

Speaker:

actually read the labels and I'm like,

Speaker:

oh.

Speaker:

All right,

Speaker:

I'm going to have to have to

Speaker:

account for this is, you know,

Speaker:

I'm going to have to make up for this.

Speaker:

wow,

Speaker:

I just took this course of antibiotics

Speaker:

and I know about the microbiome.

Speaker:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker:

I'm at risk of,

Speaker:

hopefully I don't get to see diff.

Speaker:

Hopefully, um,

Speaker:

how do I rebuild my microbiome?

Speaker:

And, you know, and I,

Speaker:

I'm in a fortunate state where like,

Speaker:

I literally have access to

Speaker:

my compounds and I use them

Speaker:

to rebuild my microbiome.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

And so I'll kind of pause there.

Speaker:

Cause that's like, yeah, no,

Speaker:

it's a great story.

Speaker:

And thank you for sharing

Speaker:

and being vulnerable with

Speaker:

that because it is a hero's journey.

Speaker:

And you,

Speaker:

you experienced the healthcare

Speaker:

system as the patient too, right?

Speaker:

You see how flawed it is,

Speaker:

even when they're at this high level.

Speaker:

Cause we're going to,

Speaker:

we got a deep dive on the

Speaker:

microbiome because what,

Speaker:

what this functional

Speaker:

approach to health and, and,

Speaker:

things rooted around the gut

Speaker:

health and microbiome and

Speaker:

immune support and

Speaker:

inflammation and immune function,

Speaker:

none of that is talked

Speaker:

about in the West world's medicine.

Speaker:

It's cut, snip, eat what you want.

Speaker:

It doesn't matter what your microbes are,

Speaker:

but that's

Speaker:

body so we got to figure out

Speaker:

like all right so let's

Speaker:

let's jump ahead a little

Speaker:

bit because you did have

Speaker:

those resources you did you

Speaker:

were involved in and you

Speaker:

were the I love you're a

Speaker:

very informed patient

Speaker:

advocate for yourself

Speaker:

But let's talk a little bit

Speaker:

about gut health and the

Speaker:

microbiome and its impact

Speaker:

on the immune system.

Speaker:

Because a lot of people that

Speaker:

listen and are going to be

Speaker:

listening to this,

Speaker:

it's relatively new for them.

Speaker:

Like telling people that

Speaker:

seventy to eighty percent

Speaker:

of your immune function is

Speaker:

not your immune function.

Speaker:

It's the gut.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So I think, I think it's, it's,

Speaker:

it's great because like,

Speaker:

that's a great transition

Speaker:

because you know, the big learning here,

Speaker:

you know, as after that surgery,

Speaker:

my IBS didn't improve.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I wasn't having crippling, you know,

Speaker:

bowel impact, recurring bowel impactions,

Speaker:

but my IBS didn't improve.

Speaker:

And so,

Speaker:

you know, the,

Speaker:

for people that don't know

Speaker:

it's inflammatory bowel, right?

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

And, and, and, and,

Speaker:

and the IBS I'm talking about it.

Speaker:

So I actually kind of had both,

Speaker:

which is an inflammatory bowel disease,

Speaker:

but also an irritable bowel

Speaker:

syndrome as well.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

which you kind of feel on a day-to-day

Speaker:

basis in terms of your bowel movements,

Speaker:

bloating, abdominal pain.

Speaker:

And so, um,

Speaker:

The what's fascinating about

Speaker:

the gut microbiome is like when,

Speaker:

when you actually think about it is like,

Speaker:

I like to say that the gut

Speaker:

and the gut microbiome is

Speaker:

what allowed us to develop

Speaker:

as a higher organism.

Speaker:

Because if you think about

Speaker:

that primordial soup,

Speaker:

those early colonies of cells that said,

Speaker:

Hey man, it's pretty brutal out here.

Speaker:

What if we work together?

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

They became multicellular.

Speaker:

They formed tube-like structures.

Speaker:

And then there were some

Speaker:

other bacteria that said, hey,

Speaker:

we don't want to formally join on,

Speaker:

but we want to be your allies.

Speaker:

We'll work with you.

Speaker:

And what is that?

Speaker:

That's the early symbiotes,

Speaker:

the early microbiome.

Speaker:

What does that structure look like?

Speaker:

It's a worm.

Speaker:

And what is our GI tract?

Speaker:

If you removed it from our anatomy,

Speaker:

you have a segmented worm.

Speaker:

That is our mouth to anus.

Speaker:

You have a segmented worm

Speaker:

that is our GI tract.

Speaker:

And so the provocative

Speaker:

argument I want to make is

Speaker:

that what we hear of as the second brain,

Speaker:

the enteric nervous system,

Speaker:

the gut nervous system,

Speaker:

I think that predated the

Speaker:

central nervous system.

Speaker:

And so somehow this system

Speaker:

is what directed the course

Speaker:

of evolution of us evolving.

Speaker:

It's worth speaking about

Speaker:

here because we don't

Speaker:

associate the microbiome, which are the,

Speaker:

you know, I'm pharmacist in me says like,

Speaker:

how can I speak at a third

Speaker:

grade level to everybody?

Speaker:

But like the critters in our body,

Speaker:

in our gut,

Speaker:

If we did, it's, it is,

Speaker:

you said it's symbiotic.

Speaker:

And in the very beginning of

Speaker:

our conversation, you said collaborative.

Speaker:

We collaborate with all of

Speaker:

these critters and they're

Speaker:

the ones that create the

Speaker:

signals that jump all the

Speaker:

things that happen in our

Speaker:

autonomic nervous system, which is stress,

Speaker:

fight, flight, immune response.

Speaker:

All these things is we interact,

Speaker:

but they're the ones interacting with us.

Speaker:

We're not interacting with them.

Speaker:

and there's way more of them

Speaker:

than there are cells of our

Speaker:

body in us if we didn't

Speaker:

have people think that it's

Speaker:

just good for gut health

Speaker:

and your digestion and I

Speaker:

don't really because in the

Speaker:

functional world not even

Speaker:

in the western like

Speaker:

allopathic medicine does

Speaker:

not touch on this but it's

Speaker:

imperative for life that

Speaker:

this this colony of things

Speaker:

that's going on with us

Speaker:

it's it is literally a

Speaker:

symphony with our system

Speaker:

the gut you talked about it

Speaker:

we got to talk about the

Speaker:

gut brain access the the

Speaker:

heart brain access these

Speaker:

are these are living

Speaker:

communication,

Speaker:

like it's like the internet for us,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

It's talking about how all

Speaker:

of this is in line.

Speaker:

And when it's out of line is

Speaker:

the root cause of all these

Speaker:

downstream effects of what

Speaker:

you're saying is the chronic diseases,

Speaker:

what you're treating, what you're using,

Speaker:

and this massive impact that you have

Speaker:

on the world right now is

Speaker:

about chronic disease.

Speaker:

And we got to talk about why

Speaker:

chronic disease is on the rise.

Speaker:

We're the richest country in

Speaker:

the world with the most

Speaker:

medicines and the most spend,

Speaker:

yet autoimmune and chronic

Speaker:

diseases are skyrocketing.

Speaker:

We talked about the autism

Speaker:

it's at astronomically

Speaker:

higher instances now.

Speaker:

So our bodies, our environments,

Speaker:

everything is more toxic,

Speaker:

which is causing all this

Speaker:

downregulation and downstream approach,

Speaker:

downstream effects of all these things.

Speaker:

I just wanted to pause and

Speaker:

hopefully everyone,

Speaker:

if they didn't get anything

Speaker:

out of this talk,

Speaker:

the one thing they get is

Speaker:

gut health is number one, period.

Speaker:

Yeah, I strongly concur with that.

Speaker:

I think

Speaker:

You know, you know,

Speaker:

Hippocrates said it all

Speaker:

disease starts in the gut

Speaker:

thousands of years ago.

Speaker:

I've examined a lot of sort

Speaker:

of ancient medical texts.

Speaker:

And I mean,

Speaker:

the ancient Chinese were doing

Speaker:

microbiome therapeutics thousands,

Speaker:

thousands of years ago.

Speaker:

They they they they knew this.

Speaker:

And, you know,

Speaker:

as a way to kind of both

Speaker:

simplify and empower

Speaker:

people, it's like,

Speaker:

think about the gut microbiome.

Speaker:

It's, it's a sixth sense.

Speaker:

Like we think about like our,

Speaker:

our five senses,

Speaker:

but think of this community

Speaker:

as an environmental sensing

Speaker:

organism or organ rather.

Speaker:

Um, so,

Speaker:

so thinking about the gut

Speaker:

microbiome as sensing the

Speaker:

external environment,

Speaker:

but sending very specific

Speaker:

signals to all areas of our body.

Speaker:

with high resolution on how

Speaker:

it should interface with

Speaker:

that environment.

Speaker:

And so what am I talking about here?

Speaker:

Where are you taking

Speaker:

something from the outside

Speaker:

and putting it inside

Speaker:

yourself multiple times a day?

Speaker:

It's eating or breathing or

Speaker:

drinking or breathing or drinking,

Speaker:

but just ingested.

Speaker:

But when you're taking a

Speaker:

large mass of something foreign,

Speaker:

absolutely foreign, um, uh,

Speaker:

indeterminate amount.

Speaker:

We know generally what air is composed of,

Speaker:

what water is composed of.

Speaker:

Those are limited consortia of intakes.

Speaker:

But think about how diverse,

Speaker:

how random you're taking

Speaker:

something from the outside.

Speaker:

And also,

Speaker:

what a risk that is to a system as well.

Speaker:

There could be

Speaker:

outside pathogens or bacteria on that.

Speaker:

There can be toxins, right?

Speaker:

And there could be allergens in that.

Speaker:

And who's the first recipient of it?

Speaker:

It's not the body, it's the symbiotes.

Speaker:

And so it's their

Speaker:

discernment of what's going on there.

Speaker:

And then they're sending

Speaker:

messages to all of their allies.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

And we, it's not, if there's toxins, it's,

Speaker:

they are toxic.

Speaker:

We were living in such a, I, I, I, we,

Speaker:

we ingest more chemicals in

Speaker:

a month that our

Speaker:

grandparents ingested in a lifetime.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So we have this high top and

Speaker:

we're not any genetically different.

Speaker:

And I love what you said

Speaker:

about like this ancient,

Speaker:

because this is the premise

Speaker:

of my podcast is like

Speaker:

ancient wisdom meets modern science.

Speaker:

So what,

Speaker:

this modern science is

Speaker:

catching up to what they

Speaker:

already knew thousands of years ago,

Speaker:

but we're putting our

Speaker:

Western brain around it and

Speaker:

talking about these things

Speaker:

in such a different way now,

Speaker:

because these critters are

Speaker:

directly affecting and

Speaker:

integrating and

Speaker:

communicating straight down

Speaker:

to the genetic codes of what we do.

Speaker:

So it's not that we're doing it.

Speaker:

It's that they're doing it.

Speaker:

And it's, it's really who's,

Speaker:

who's, who's the parasite here, right?

Speaker:

Who's the, the, the, you know,

Speaker:

I always talk about that

Speaker:

with people is like, who's,

Speaker:

who's actually in control here, right?

Speaker:

It's, it's literally the, the,

Speaker:

the little guys.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

They're,

Speaker:

they're orchestrating the whole

Speaker:

thing in this body.

Speaker:

It's almost like they were

Speaker:

like little puppet puppeteers, you know?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And, and, and, and, and, and just to, uh,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

take a quick detour into some

Speaker:

mysticism here.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

Think about all ancient

Speaker:

meditative practices.

Speaker:

What's preparatory for them?

Speaker:

It's fasting.

Speaker:

So what do you get with fasting?

Speaker:

What you get is you get a

Speaker:

quiescence of the microbiome.

Speaker:

It stops sending signals.

Speaker:

That's when you get to be alone.

Speaker:

You go into a prolonged fasted state.

Speaker:

You don't need external...

Speaker:

energy consumption,

Speaker:

the microbiome is quiet.

Speaker:

Which makes the brain quiet.

Speaker:

Which means the brain is quiet.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

The somatic cells are quiet.

Speaker:

That is when you can truly

Speaker:

know your genetic self, right?

Speaker:

Where you're really only

Speaker:

getting those somatic

Speaker:

messages when you're not

Speaker:

getting... You don't have the noise...

Speaker:

of the microbiome yes yes

Speaker:

yes and yes like these are

Speaker:

like three like the

Speaker:

three-day water fasts like

Speaker:

when people that's when

Speaker:

people get to that that's

Speaker:

when I'm in an energy

Speaker:

medicine certification

Speaker:

class and you're talking

Speaker:

about um we talk about like

Speaker:

vision quest and the first

Speaker:

thing you do is you fast for three days

Speaker:

And then you go on this

Speaker:

quest to understand because

Speaker:

that's what calms the brain

Speaker:

down because the gut brain

Speaker:

is now in harmony.

Speaker:

It's slowed it down.

Speaker:

The opposite effect of that,

Speaker:

when people are hangry or

Speaker:

they're craving sugar,

Speaker:

it's not the brain craving,

Speaker:

it's the candida talking, right?

Speaker:

It's the overgrowth of the

Speaker:

pathogenic bacteria and

Speaker:

yeast that's causing the brain signals,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

because they're not getting fed, right?

Speaker:

So that's why the sugar

Speaker:

cravings and the carb

Speaker:

cravings come because it's

Speaker:

literally the bacteria communicating,

Speaker:

firing up those signals,

Speaker:

which is causing that

Speaker:

emotional charge for people

Speaker:

to get cravings and totally hungry,

Speaker:

hangry.

Speaker:

So it's interesting.

Speaker:

And then that's how you know

Speaker:

they have a candida overgrowth.

Speaker:

You don't even have to test them.

Speaker:

It's like, oh,

Speaker:

did you get sugar cravings

Speaker:

and you get really nasty

Speaker:

because then you don't have it?

Speaker:

And they're like, yes.

Speaker:

I'm like, all right,

Speaker:

let's start treating candida.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker:

I never knew that.

Speaker:

That's news to me.

Speaker:

That's, that's, it's the metabolites,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

They're getting starved.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So that's exactly the gut

Speaker:

brain connection in the wrong direction.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

That's, I mean, that's fast,

Speaker:

fascinating about, yeah.

Speaker:

Candida, uh, that,

Speaker:

that makes complete sense.

Speaker:

Um, yeah, I mean, it's right.

Speaker:

It's an elegant system.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

And, um,

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And, and,

Speaker:

but it is kind of like an opportunity,

Speaker:

you know, it's like, you know, first,

Speaker:

first note, know thyself.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

And so this is a really key

Speaker:

component of it.

Speaker:

And as you say, it's like, no,

Speaker:

where the contribution to

Speaker:

behavior is coming from self non-self.

Speaker:

And, and that's why, you know,

Speaker:

to my earlier, you know,

Speaker:

kind of point about, you know,

Speaker:

the worm became before the

Speaker:

spine before the, the brain.

Speaker:

Um, okay.

Speaker:

So why did it allow those things?

Speaker:

Why, why, why did this, uh, exoskeleton,

Speaker:

uh,

Speaker:

develop and it's because of greater

Speaker:

feeding and foraging opportunities.

Speaker:

Survival, right?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But, but, but, but to enhance opportunity.

Speaker:

Uh, and, and so, um,

Speaker:

I mean, you know,

Speaker:

another takeaway I think for listeners is,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

cultivate the awareness and just

Speaker:

figure out like how your

Speaker:

feeding behavior drives your life.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

And then you can think about, you know,

Speaker:

just to give a sense of how

Speaker:

much the microbiome, you know,

Speaker:

plays into your, your,

Speaker:

your everyday routine.

Speaker:

Um, and then it creates an opportunity to,

Speaker:

to, to modify it as well.

Speaker:

Well,

Speaker:

and it's important because we've

Speaker:

talked a lot about the

Speaker:

microbiome in interesting

Speaker:

ways here because it does

Speaker:

rule the roost here because

Speaker:

of the downstream effects.

Speaker:

These signalings, you know,

Speaker:

I always say like food isn't just energy,

Speaker:

it's information.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

And it's medicine.

Speaker:

Food is medicine,

Speaker:

but it's also a poison

Speaker:

depending on what you're eating.

Speaker:

And so...

Speaker:

Let's talk a little bit

Speaker:

about... Maybe this is a

Speaker:

good time to start talking

Speaker:

ogliosaccharides.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I know them from the

Speaker:

functional world of

Speaker:

fructo-ogliosaccharides

Speaker:

because we use them all the

Speaker:

time in gut health because

Speaker:

prebiotic fiber is really

Speaker:

good in food for the

Speaker:

critters that are good for

Speaker:

you and that increase all that signaling,

Speaker:

which allows the body to...

Speaker:

body at this time,

Speaker:

signal itself and do the good healing,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

So I'm just getting used to

Speaker:

this stuff coming from human milk,

Speaker:

but let's talk a little bit

Speaker:

about this because this science is

Speaker:

This is the modern science part of this,

Speaker:

which is also part of the ancient wisdom,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

So let's talk a little bit about it.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

This is your passion space.

Speaker:

I want to hear you.

Speaker:

I want to hear that.

Speaker:

Yeah, this is.

Speaker:

And in the vein of what we forgot,

Speaker:

it's like we're the only

Speaker:

civilization on record that

Speaker:

didn't use human milk as medicine, right?

Speaker:

In fact,

Speaker:

we almost removed it from babies

Speaker:

for generations, right?

Speaker:

Via formula.

Speaker:

And so, you know,

Speaker:

as you're talking about

Speaker:

these plant-based prebiotic

Speaker:

fibers as instrumental for gut health,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

what may be surprising to listeners is,

Speaker:

guess what?

Speaker:

Humans produce prebiotic fiber.

Speaker:

Wait, what?

Speaker:

That's odd.

Speaker:

We're not a plant.

Speaker:

Well,

Speaker:

Turns out that mothers,

Speaker:

when we look at human milk,

Speaker:

after fat and lactose,

Speaker:

which are both caloric elements of milk,

Speaker:

the third largest solid

Speaker:

component of human milk at

Speaker:

five to fifteen grams per

Speaker:

liter are prebiotics called

Speaker:

human milk oligosaccharides.

Speaker:

And there's about two

Speaker:

hundred distinct structures of them.

Speaker:

these compounds are non-caloric.

Speaker:

Our body can literally not

Speaker:

break these things down for energy.

Speaker:

So what are they doing?

Speaker:

Why?

Speaker:

That was my first question.

Speaker:

So what are they doing?

Speaker:

So what are they doing?

Speaker:

And I love how you said that

Speaker:

food is information.

Speaker:

So these are,

Speaker:

it's a communication system

Speaker:

by which a mother can speak directly

Speaker:

to the baby's developing microbiome,

Speaker:

which ideally she

Speaker:

colonnaded with hopefully a vaginal birth,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Which is, you know,

Speaker:

we can talk about that when

Speaker:

we talk about increasing

Speaker:

rates of autoimmune diseases, autism,

Speaker:

things like that.

Speaker:

That's usually where the

Speaker:

foundational inoculation of

Speaker:

bacteria that the mom had

Speaker:

gets seeded to the baby.

Speaker:

And how do you keep them there?

Speaker:

How do you make sure they

Speaker:

flourish and that pathogens

Speaker:

don't outgrow it?

Speaker:

The mom has a unique

Speaker:

combination of this

Speaker:

delivered through breast

Speaker:

milk to cultivate and

Speaker:

nurture that foundational ecosystem.

Speaker:

But you have to remember,

Speaker:

that you know the baby's

Speaker:

immune system in some ways

Speaker:

what does it look like it

Speaker:

looks like somebody with

Speaker:

autoimmune disease it's an

Speaker:

immature system it doesn't

Speaker:

know who's a good guy who's

Speaker:

an enemy how to how to deal

Speaker:

an appropriate hasn't been

Speaker:

developed yet exactly it

Speaker:

hasn't been developed yet

Speaker:

well we people people don't

Speaker:

realize that there's

Speaker:

There's an innate immune system,

Speaker:

and then there's a learned immune system,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

And so part of the learned

Speaker:

immune system is getting a

Speaker:

bug and getting over it and

Speaker:

figuring it out.

Speaker:

But there's this innate

Speaker:

system that's pretty much sterile, right?

Speaker:

There's no gut flora there.

Speaker:

in a baby until you go

Speaker:

through the birth canal

Speaker:

which is super important

Speaker:

yeah and then the mom like

Speaker:

this is evolutionary things

Speaker:

right what's the most

Speaker:

nutritious and healthiest

Speaker:

food on the entire planet

Speaker:

for a baby it's breast milk

Speaker:

human milk that comes.

Speaker:

And they've done so many

Speaker:

studies to show if you

Speaker:

drink the breast milk and you go all out,

Speaker:

like even in the old tribes,

Speaker:

how old are the kids still

Speaker:

drinking breast milk?

Speaker:

They're five, six, seven, ten years old.

Speaker:

So breastfed babies...

Speaker:

And natural birth babies,

Speaker:

we already know the science is pure.

Speaker:

It's like they're so much healthier.

Speaker:

Their immune system develops.

Speaker:

So what you're talking about

Speaker:

here is taking the benefits

Speaker:

of human milk and bringing

Speaker:

it to the medical world.

Speaker:

I wanted to make sure people understood.

Speaker:

My wife was...

Speaker:

religious about making sure

Speaker:

both of our children were

Speaker:

breastfed for at least one year.

Speaker:

And it just opened up their

Speaker:

immune systems.

Speaker:

They're so... And we're

Speaker:

organic and all that stuff,

Speaker:

but feed mom good stuff.

Speaker:

She feeds baby really good stuff.

Speaker:

And they...

Speaker:

My kids,

Speaker:

they've had one sick visit their

Speaker:

entire lives at the doctor.

Speaker:

And I firmly know,

Speaker:

it's the first question we

Speaker:

ask in functional medicine,

Speaker:

were you breastfed?

Speaker:

Were you given antibiotics?

Speaker:

Those two things happen to

Speaker:

do with how the gut

Speaker:

develops and the immune system develops.

Speaker:

So-

Speaker:

Continue, because this is your field.

Speaker:

I just wanted to make sure

Speaker:

we didn't jump to where you

Speaker:

are without showing people

Speaker:

there's a massive amount of

Speaker:

importance here from the

Speaker:

standpoint of this beautiful, natural,

Speaker:

super nutritious food, if you will.

Speaker:

Yeah, and maybe to modify that,

Speaker:

it's not just a food or

Speaker:

taking it to food as medicine, right?

Speaker:

So if we look at human milk,

Speaker:

there's calories,

Speaker:

there's nutritional components,

Speaker:

There is a whole host of

Speaker:

cutting-edge medicine in human milk.

Speaker:

There are antibodies, there are exosomes,

Speaker:

there's nucleic,

Speaker:

there's even RNAs in there.

Speaker:

And then you have, again,

Speaker:

the largest component,

Speaker:

human milk oligosaccharides, non-caloric.

Speaker:

And what these things do is

Speaker:

they don't just feed... Let

Speaker:

me walk through stepwise.

Speaker:

all the functions that we've

Speaker:

identified for these.

Speaker:

So they do preferentially

Speaker:

feed bifidobacterium,

Speaker:

which is probably one of

Speaker:

our most important bacterial allies.

Speaker:

That bifidobacterium can

Speaker:

metabolize these and crossfeed

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Think about them as a

Speaker:

keystone species in the, in the ecosystem,

Speaker:

cross feeding a bunch of other commensal,

Speaker:

uh, microbes, these sugars.

Speaker:

And so I'll use the term

Speaker:

interchangeably because an

Speaker:

oligosaccharide is a fancy

Speaker:

way of saying sugar, um,

Speaker:

also serve as soil soluble

Speaker:

receptor decoys for pathogens.

Speaker:

And so, um,

Speaker:

sugars that line our our you

Speaker:

know mucosal track and

Speaker:

things like that that's

Speaker:

actually how sometimes

Speaker:

pathogens enter the human

Speaker:

body and so some of these

Speaker:

um oligos the hmos

Speaker:

pathogens bind to them

Speaker:

instead of being able to

Speaker:

bind and find entryway into

Speaker:

our body and pass out that

Speaker:

way and so um that's

Speaker:

another mechanism of essentially how

Speaker:

the human milk

Speaker:

oligosaccharides can kind of

Speaker:

terraform and set that

Speaker:

foundational microbiome.

Speaker:

But beyond that, as a prebiotic,

Speaker:

As I mentioned,

Speaker:

they're being metabolized

Speaker:

into a whole host of other substances,

Speaker:

short chain fatty acids, butyrate,

Speaker:

which is so important for

Speaker:

the health of the cells in

Speaker:

our colon and our intestines.

Speaker:

It's literally what they live off of.

Speaker:

It's a preferential food of them.

Speaker:

So it's literally feeding

Speaker:

our body's own cells.

Speaker:

They're also producing with

Speaker:

precision a bunch of drug

Speaker:

like small molecules that

Speaker:

enter the body and even get

Speaker:

through the blood and enter the brain.

Speaker:

So signals that start early

Speaker:

that start telling the body, hey,

Speaker:

you're in a good spot.

Speaker:

This is this is what to do.

Speaker:

And then.

Speaker:

one of the things that, you know,

Speaker:

especially coming from your

Speaker:

background with the

Speaker:

fructooligosaccharides makes,

Speaker:

I think HMOs special is

Speaker:

they have microbiome independent effects.

Speaker:

And so these are effects

Speaker:

that don't rely on the bacteria.

Speaker:

These, as I said, these are,

Speaker:

these are our communication.

Speaker:

This is some, some sort of language.

Speaker:

They can talk directly to

Speaker:

innate immune system as well

Speaker:

as the adaptive immune

Speaker:

system and so what we've

Speaker:

seen with these compounds

Speaker:

is they can take for

Speaker:

example macrophage you know

Speaker:

the the key cell in the

Speaker:

innate immune system and

Speaker:

take it from that m-one

Speaker:

phenotype where it's you

Speaker:

know search and destroy to

Speaker:

m-two rebuild regenerate and so

Speaker:

What we've seen is that HMOs

Speaker:

are able to create balanced

Speaker:

immune responses,

Speaker:

both on the innate system

Speaker:

and also expanding Tregs.

Speaker:

So the T regulatory cells

Speaker:

that kind of orchestrate

Speaker:

and manage the adaptive immune response.

Speaker:

And that's why we can see

Speaker:

effects on both autoimmunity,

Speaker:

but also things like

Speaker:

allergen immunity as well.

Speaker:

So that's a lot.

Speaker:

Well, it's, it's big because,

Speaker:

so what I'm hearing, cause you know, the,

Speaker:

there's the simplification to me is like,

Speaker:

all right, it's, it's,

Speaker:

it's got good effects in

Speaker:

different places and it's adaptive,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

We have this modulation of

Speaker:

the immune system.

Speaker:

So where, where let's call them drugs and,

Speaker:

would turn on or off

Speaker:

something it's almost like

Speaker:

a light switch and these

Speaker:

are like dimmers right

Speaker:

they're dimmer switches

Speaker:

because they're and they're

Speaker:

balancing so when

Speaker:

something's off it goes

Speaker:

back to harmony and balance

Speaker:

so this homeostasis is

Speaker:

happening this hormesis is happening and

Speaker:

it's also influential to the

Speaker:

bad guys not doing what

Speaker:

they're supposed to do.

Speaker:

So it's got this dual effect

Speaker:

or triple effect.

Speaker:

I heard like around that space.

Speaker:

So obviously we can't go

Speaker:

around milking moms with

Speaker:

milk and grabbing all this

Speaker:

good stuff and going.

Speaker:

So,

Speaker:

We know it's good for us.

Speaker:

It's the superfood.

Speaker:

We know it's more than food.

Speaker:

It's got all these factors going in there.

Speaker:

These ogliosaccharides,

Speaker:

these things are beautiful

Speaker:

messenger systems for the right stuff,

Speaker:

all the good things going

Speaker:

in the right direction.

Speaker:

So tell us a little bit

Speaker:

about how it works.

Speaker:

This is where the genesis of

Speaker:

this company came from, I assume, right?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so, yeah,

Speaker:

you really set me up nicely

Speaker:

there because like, you know,

Speaker:

really the capping point is

Speaker:

these are these compounds program.

Speaker:

the human system for balance,

Speaker:

for homeostasis.

Speaker:

That's literally- Just like

Speaker:

they do with an infant, right?

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

They were taking the most

Speaker:

beautiful thing you could

Speaker:

do for a baby and set it up

Speaker:

for success in life.

Speaker:

And you brought it back into the world.

Speaker:

So to me, that's mind-blowingly awesome.

Speaker:

Yeah, like I'm like,

Speaker:

that's the thing is like, I'm not some,

Speaker:

you know, like, oh, wow,

Speaker:

I invented this thing.

Speaker:

Instead, it's like,

Speaker:

I see the world through

Speaker:

pattern recognition.

Speaker:

I saw a beautiful pattern in nature.

Speaker:

And I just wanted to ask a simple question,

Speaker:

which is, hey,

Speaker:

if these are these can

Speaker:

determine an infant's lifelong health.

Speaker:

could they also be a reset

Speaker:

switch when we're older and in a state of,

Speaker:

of, of, of,

Speaker:

of this health and disharmony.

Speaker:

And so, um, you know, also, you know,

Speaker:

your other point is very important.

Speaker:

Mother's milk is for babies,

Speaker:

including donation milk.

Speaker:

It should not be diverted

Speaker:

for pharmaceutical adult applications.

Speaker:

Um, uh, you know, I,

Speaker:

Knowing full well the

Speaker:

importance of breast milk,

Speaker:

my wife did have issues

Speaker:

with mastitis and food allergies.

Speaker:

And so we used donation milk.

Speaker:

And what a blessing it is to

Speaker:

have had access to that.

Speaker:

And again, incredibly important.

Speaker:

So don't want any moms to

Speaker:

beat themselves up.

Speaker:

Uh, if, if you had troubles like this,

Speaker:

it's,

Speaker:

that is a systemic fail failure and

Speaker:

we're trying to remedy this.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

Because what I'm doing here

Speaker:

is I'm actually leveraging, um,

Speaker:

manufacturing technology

Speaker:

that was developed to make

Speaker:

infant formula closer to

Speaker:

breast milk by adding human,

Speaker:

human identical milk

Speaker:

oligosaccharides to it.

Speaker:

And these can be produced, um,

Speaker:

using bacteria in

Speaker:

fermentation you can brew

Speaker:

uh human milk

Speaker:

oligosaccharides um and then

Speaker:

you can of course purify

Speaker:

them and you know make them

Speaker:

available and that's

Speaker:

important is now there

Speaker:

there are formulas with

Speaker:

human milk oligosaccharides

Speaker:

in them that do re you know do

Speaker:

offer improved effects on a

Speaker:

baby's developing system.

Speaker:

And so we're able to

Speaker:

leverage that type of

Speaker:

manufacturing technology to

Speaker:

develop these at large scale,

Speaker:

where then we can produce

Speaker:

them in quantities.

Speaker:

I mean, just a few years ago,

Speaker:

it would have cost hundreds

Speaker:

of thousands of dollars to

Speaker:

produce and isolate some of

Speaker:

these per gram.

Speaker:

And today we can do it at a

Speaker:

cost effective for research

Speaker:

and development purposes

Speaker:

where we can contemplate

Speaker:

dosing adult patients at

Speaker:

ten grams a day for six months.

Speaker:

And so that's really

Speaker:

premise of what we're doing

Speaker:

I I we looked at these

Speaker:

compounds and I said these

Speaker:

are nature's drugs I took

Speaker:

them to the fda and I said

Speaker:

hey are you seeing what

Speaker:

we're seeing and they said

Speaker:

yeah yeah these are nature

Speaker:

drugs we consider them

Speaker:

drugs when used for for

Speaker:

these therapeutic

Speaker:

applications and then we

Speaker:

used our background in

Speaker:

pharma to develop to to

Speaker:

look at the scientific

Speaker:

landscape and say no one's

Speaker:

really done that gold standard

Speaker:

placebo-controlled

Speaker:

randomized study with these

Speaker:

compounds in the best indication.

Speaker:

And when we looked for what

Speaker:

a prototypic gut-driven

Speaker:

adult disorder would be

Speaker:

that matched the profile of

Speaker:

the single HMO that we have

Speaker:

most scaled to date,

Speaker:

it turned out to be Parkinson's disease.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker:

So let's talk a little bit

Speaker:

about these things now.

Speaker:

So you've,

Speaker:

you've isolated them down into

Speaker:

these specific compounds.

Speaker:

You able to get it

Speaker:

manufactured and cultivated

Speaker:

in a way that you can

Speaker:

actually get the right doses.

Speaker:

And what I love about this is human,

Speaker:

human milk.

Speaker:

It's super bioavailable

Speaker:

because the baby's eating it orally,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Again, don't mess with nature.

Speaker:

Like nature has evolved this.

Speaker:

So you've got this bio bioavailable,

Speaker:

which is absorbable through

Speaker:

an oral mechanism.

Speaker:

And you've been able to isolate.

Speaker:

But how did you get from.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

This one does this or, you know,

Speaker:

that's got to be to me.

Speaker:

That's like super confusing.

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

so it came when first like the

Speaker:

individual structures,

Speaker:

because this has been known

Speaker:

for a hundred years.

Speaker:

It used to be called the bifidus factor.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah, it was called the bifidus.

Speaker:

It's like an old timey medical term.

Speaker:

Oh, the bifidus factor in human milk.

Speaker:

And that was before they

Speaker:

could really discern what

Speaker:

these things were because

Speaker:

they're hard to see because

Speaker:

they all have the same kind

Speaker:

of molecular weight.

Speaker:

And they're all made out of

Speaker:

the same building blocks.

Speaker:

They just differ based on the bonds,

Speaker:

the angles of the bonds.

Speaker:

And so it really wasn't

Speaker:

until we had mass spectrometry,

Speaker:

really advanced

Speaker:

technologies that we're

Speaker:

able to even see what these

Speaker:

distinct structures are.

Speaker:

And then from there, you say, hey,

Speaker:

for example you know two fl

Speaker:

is is is the primary one

Speaker:

you're like that's thirty

Speaker:

percent of these things

Speaker:

that thing must be pretty

Speaker:

darn important now that we

Speaker:

can produce it let's put it

Speaker:

into different models of

Speaker:

disease different contexts

Speaker:

and see what happens and

Speaker:

that was kind of like the

Speaker:

um exploratory state and

Speaker:

you know it was really

Speaker:

recognized that two fl is

Speaker:

the primary like

Speaker:

really instrumental in developing the gut,

Speaker:

maturing the gut,

Speaker:

feeding that foundational microbiome.

Speaker:

But there's another

Speaker:

fascinating aspect here is that, you know,

Speaker:

one to four percent of

Speaker:

these with oral

Speaker:

administration enter the

Speaker:

bloodstream intact.

Speaker:

They're doing something in there.

Speaker:

And to add further intrigue,

Speaker:

and this is how I

Speaker:

originally recognized that, wait,

Speaker:

these are not, this is not nutritional.

Speaker:

These are drugs.

Speaker:

HMOs actually are in the fetal cord blood.

Speaker:

So they're circulating in

Speaker:

the baby the entire time

Speaker:

it's in utero and they're

Speaker:

surrounding it in the amniotic fluid.

Speaker:

These things don't happen by accident.

Speaker:

And even more strikingly,

Speaker:

HMOs appear in maternal

Speaker:

circulation in the first trimester.

Speaker:

They're conferring a benefit

Speaker:

to the mother systemically.

Speaker:

They're protecting the moms.

Speaker:

And so when you see a compound and you say,

Speaker:

wait,

Speaker:

this is inside surrounding and then

Speaker:

externalized

Speaker:

being produced for

Speaker:

ancestrally years of oral consumption,

Speaker:

and then a proportion is

Speaker:

still reaching systemic absorption,

Speaker:

you say, wow, this is really important.

Speaker:

And so let's systematically

Speaker:

characterize these and

Speaker:

figure out what the use case is.

Speaker:

And that's a beautiful

Speaker:

aspect of what I'm doing,

Speaker:

which is it appends the

Speaker:

pharmaceutical development model is

Speaker:

I just look at nature and I say,

Speaker:

these are important.

Speaker:

Now we just have to find

Speaker:

what they're for versus me

Speaker:

coming up with something and saying like,

Speaker:

Hey, let me,

Speaker:

let me try to hammer this into, you know,

Speaker:

this square,

Speaker:

square peg into the round hole.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, it's in it.

Speaker:

And like,

Speaker:

Don't mess with nature, right?

Speaker:

Because nature is so... I

Speaker:

love how it goes full

Speaker:

circle into your intuitive

Speaker:

thought process or your

Speaker:

intuitive knowing knowledge

Speaker:

when you were younger about...

Speaker:

Just your your relationship with nature.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

And this is another thing.

Speaker:

It's like,

Speaker:

why would why would we be bathed

Speaker:

in this stuff and not have

Speaker:

it be important?

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

So and then looking at it

Speaker:

from the perspective of

Speaker:

this is the most of this

Speaker:

stuff like it's the predominant one.

Speaker:

And I think it's interesting

Speaker:

they called it like the

Speaker:

bifido factor because

Speaker:

that's the most predominant

Speaker:

strain that's doing the most anyway.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

From a bacterial perspective.

Speaker:

Bifido cultures are awesome.

Speaker:

And so.

Speaker:

Tell us where this

Speaker:

technology is going and

Speaker:

like what's like you said, Parkinson's,

Speaker:

but like I sense and feel

Speaker:

like this is a breakthrough

Speaker:

in ways and manners in which people are.

Speaker:

going about these kind of

Speaker:

health concerns we talked

Speaker:

about the root cause with

Speaker:

the gut and how it's a

Speaker:

downstream effect to these

Speaker:

immune responses and how

Speaker:

we've also talked about how

Speaker:

these beneficial immune

Speaker:

things are happening when

Speaker:

you're doing it from an

Speaker:

infant perspective at birth

Speaker:

but now we're talking about

Speaker:

almost turning back in reversal of

Speaker:

conditions that have been auto,

Speaker:

like the hyper or the

Speaker:

immune response issues.

Speaker:

So now this is coming around

Speaker:

full circle with your company,

Speaker:

what you're doing.

Speaker:

Are these drugs?

Speaker:

Are you going through FDA?

Speaker:

Are you going to get specific indications?

Speaker:

Or are we looking at it from some other,

Speaker:

like you said, scalable component here?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And it was important to me is

Speaker:

making sure people have access to these.

Speaker:

And the first step is

Speaker:

informing people about it.

Speaker:

And that's the other thing is, you know,

Speaker:

I don't want, you know, you know,

Speaker:

one of the challenges when

Speaker:

you're developing

Speaker:

pharmaceuticals is that you're like, Hey,

Speaker:

I have something amazing.

Speaker:

Check back in seven years.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

You know, or more.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

No, it's amazing.

Speaker:

And then it's seven to ten years.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so like, that's, you know,

Speaker:

a challenge here.

Speaker:

And that's where, you know, I, I'm,

Speaker:

I have to address several priorities.

Speaker:

First and foremost, it's

Speaker:

A lot of great groups have gone out there,

Speaker:

elucidated,

Speaker:

helped show what these things do,

Speaker:

but no one's really done, as I mentioned,

Speaker:

that gold standards trial,

Speaker:

the type of thing that can

Speaker:

go into the high impact

Speaker:

scientific literature that

Speaker:

will reshape thinking of

Speaker:

how we treat diseases to

Speaker:

show that you can intervene in them.

Speaker:

So when we look at, like right now,

Speaker:

It is an absolute tidal wave

Speaker:

saying the microbiome is

Speaker:

deterministic and probably

Speaker:

the most easily modifiable

Speaker:

aspect of different diseases.

Speaker:

Like now rheumatoid

Speaker:

arthritis has a gut microbiome, you know,

Speaker:

drive like in, you know,

Speaker:

the highest impact publications.

Speaker:

And so people are like,

Speaker:

what can we do from here?

Speaker:

A lot of people have heard

Speaker:

about like fecal microbiota

Speaker:

transplants and how those work.

Speaker:

But they're just inherently not scalable.

Speaker:

There's some dangers associated with them.

Speaker:

There's an ick factor.

Speaker:

And, you know, even some transplants,

Speaker:

like it's literally changed them.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker:

It addressed that disease,

Speaker:

but they became obese as a

Speaker:

result from having the micro,

Speaker:

the transfer of an obese person.

Speaker:

It actually shows kind of

Speaker:

like an organ transplant, right?

Speaker:

You're getting it from about other person,

Speaker:

people,

Speaker:

some people that don't know what a

Speaker:

fecal transplant is.

Speaker:

Basically you're swallowing

Speaker:

someone else's fecal matter.

Speaker:

And you're recolonizing the

Speaker:

gut in hopes that the

Speaker:

recolonization is going to

Speaker:

give more of the beneficial stuff.

Speaker:

And so now you're kind of

Speaker:

hyper-focusing on not the

Speaker:

broad stroke pen here,

Speaker:

but really getting down into...

Speaker:

predictable scalable and and

Speaker:

sustainable really um

Speaker:

effects because you know I

Speaker:

I know that there's it's

Speaker:

kind of like a organ

Speaker:

transplant a heart

Speaker:

transplant could go good or

Speaker:

bad the immune system could

Speaker:

go change so this is kind

Speaker:

of that same space so I

Speaker:

just want to make sure some

Speaker:

people would like what the

Speaker:

hell's a fecal transplant you know yeah

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And it's,

Speaker:

and I think that's a great way to, to,

Speaker:

to put it.

Speaker:

It's literally like a major

Speaker:

organ transplant.

Speaker:

And so you only do those for last resort.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so really there's been a gap,

Speaker:

a bunch of other, you know,

Speaker:

companies have gone out there and they've,

Speaker:

I'd say taken a

Speaker:

reductionist approach to it.

Speaker:

They said, Hey, what components of that,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

fecal microbiota transplant led

Speaker:

to the beneficial effects?

Speaker:

Cause they do work on,

Speaker:

a whole range of diseases.

Speaker:

And they said, okay,

Speaker:

let's take maybe a limited

Speaker:

consortia of those bacteria,

Speaker:

or let's take some of the

Speaker:

metabolites that are in there.

Speaker:

And so you're kind of

Speaker:

deconstructing the thing

Speaker:

and really diminishing the benefit.

Speaker:

But our vision is, Hey, you know,

Speaker:

it would be amazing instead

Speaker:

of eating someone else's poop,

Speaker:

it's making yours look like the donors.

Speaker:

What if you became a,

Speaker:

shifted your microbiome to

Speaker:

look like the donor that

Speaker:

would address your solution

Speaker:

wouldn't that change your

Speaker:

health status with none of

Speaker:

the risks all of the

Speaker:

benefits how do you

Speaker:

signaling signaling the

Speaker:

body to do what it was

Speaker:

supposed to do yeah and and

Speaker:

how do you and how do you

Speaker:

go upstream of that system

Speaker:

is prebiotics right and

Speaker:

what's the best prebiotic on the planet

Speaker:

the one that foundationally

Speaker:

programmed us all the human

Speaker:

milk oligosaccharides and

Speaker:

so it's taking all of that

Speaker:

and then saying okay we

Speaker:

have to meet the scientific

Speaker:

community where it is and

Speaker:

deliver the standard of

Speaker:

evidence that will lead to

Speaker:

practice change and that's

Speaker:

why we're going down the

Speaker:

pharmaceutical path um and then

Speaker:

In parallel, though,

Speaker:

the public health perspective says,

Speaker:

wait a second,

Speaker:

these compounds are

Speaker:

available to be in infant formula today.

Speaker:

Is there another access

Speaker:

channel where we're not

Speaker:

holding them out for

Speaker:

therapeutic uses where

Speaker:

people can access them?

Speaker:

And that's something that's in the works.

Speaker:

And if people are interested in that,

Speaker:

I suggest that they go to my website,

Speaker:

Intrinsic Medicine,

Speaker:

just sign out the contact form,

Speaker:

tell me who you are and

Speaker:

what your gut-related issues are.

Speaker:

And then you'll be on our list.

Speaker:

So then when I have announcements,

Speaker:

whether it be for a

Speaker:

clinical study for a specific disease,

Speaker:

you can hear about that.

Speaker:

Or when...

Speaker:

perhaps another access

Speaker:

channel is announced that

Speaker:

then you're first to know.

Speaker:

That's amazing.

Speaker:

Cause that was my first question.

Speaker:

Cause when the, the,

Speaker:

the pharmacist brain in me

Speaker:

says we're going down the pharma channel,

Speaker:

I'm like, well,

Speaker:

that's going to be a lot of money,

Speaker:

a lot of time and limited access.

Speaker:

So I'm like glad that you're

Speaker:

looking at it from that perspective,

Speaker:

almost like a medical food, right?

Speaker:

That's kind of what we're talking about.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

That's amazing.

Speaker:

So what, what is,

Speaker:

what do you see the future for this?

Speaker:

Like what is in the pipe?

Speaker:

So can you tell people like what,

Speaker:

what benefits you're seeing

Speaker:

in different types of,

Speaker:

cause I would imagine

Speaker:

people hearing this is like,

Speaker:

this is all great, but is it,

Speaker:

is it good for X, Y, or Z?

Speaker:

Or what are we seeing in, you know,

Speaker:

if we're talking a year from now,

Speaker:

where is this thing?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So in a year from now, this,

Speaker:

this will be in a case of

Speaker:

clinical studies in Parkinson's disease.

Speaker:

And this is, I think really important.

Speaker:

It's,

Speaker:

it's now just widely recognized that

Speaker:

idiopathic Parkinson's disease is a,

Speaker:

is a microbiome driven,

Speaker:

both oral as well as gut

Speaker:

microbiome driven.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

So we'll have clinical

Speaker:

studies well underway there.

Speaker:

We're also developing for

Speaker:

inflammatory bowel disease.

Speaker:

There's an ongoing study of

Speaker:

our compound at Cincinnati

Speaker:

Children's Hospitals in

Speaker:

pediatric patients with IBD.

Speaker:

We're also exploring

Speaker:

allograft versus host disease.

Speaker:

There's been a positive

Speaker:

phase two study also done

Speaker:

at Cincinnati Children's

Speaker:

Hospital with that compound.

Speaker:

And then we'll be planning

Speaker:

on also initiating our own

Speaker:

Crohn's disease,

Speaker:

which is one of the forms

Speaker:

of inflammatory bowel disease.

Speaker:

And then other key programs

Speaker:

that are going to be like

Speaker:

follow up are going to be in autism,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Because GI is one of the

Speaker:

primary comorbidities of autism, you know,

Speaker:

like, you know,

Speaker:

Fifty to eighty percent of

Speaker:

the kids have either

Speaker:

constipation or chronic

Speaker:

constipation or diarrhea.

Speaker:

And so there's an

Speaker:

opportunity to to treat them there.

Speaker:

And then we also have two

Speaker:

additional distinct

Speaker:

oligosaccharides that also

Speaker:

based on preclinical data

Speaker:

look like they're going to

Speaker:

have some immune and

Speaker:

neurological benefits on on

Speaker:

on things like irritability

Speaker:

associated with autism.

Speaker:

And so

Speaker:

Those are pioneering spaces

Speaker:

because all the things

Speaker:

you're talking about in the normal,

Speaker:

let's just call it the normal,

Speaker:

but the traditional medicine model,

Speaker:

there's no treatment for this.

Speaker:

We're barely touching the

Speaker:

surface on just symptom

Speaker:

resolution because that's

Speaker:

really what medicine is doing.

Speaker:

We're not really getting to

Speaker:

the root cause.

Speaker:

It's just, to me, it sounds like we just,

Speaker:

we're at the cutting edge

Speaker:

of this and we're moving it

Speaker:

in this direction.

Speaker:

And it's kind of like when

Speaker:

you see results in one place,

Speaker:

it starts to,

Speaker:

it's almost like the

Speaker:

mycelium of mushrooms.

Speaker:

It just starts to grow out,

Speaker:

like that culture grows out

Speaker:

because we're at the root cause here,

Speaker:

which means if we're using it,

Speaker:

you're gonna see the side

Speaker:

effect of it helping here,

Speaker:

of helping here.

Speaker:

of it being, you know,

Speaker:

the do no harm approach

Speaker:

because it's working on the

Speaker:

body that's triggering the

Speaker:

things that are all healthy,

Speaker:

like just like nature did

Speaker:

in the beginning of your life.

Speaker:

And so I see this being a

Speaker:

massively cool and fun thing.

Speaker:

I can't wait to just

Speaker:

continue to just follow

Speaker:

this now because it's just

Speaker:

something that's exciting.

Speaker:

It's like bringing in

Speaker:

something that's so powerful

Speaker:

you know, when things work, when you saw,

Speaker:

when you solved a problem

Speaker:

that made sense from the beginning.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Cause that's what you said.

Speaker:

Like in the beginning, he's like,

Speaker:

why can't we just use human

Speaker:

milk derivatives that we

Speaker:

already know are super beneficial.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

It's like, yeah.

Speaker:

I love it.

Speaker:

I love what you're doing.

Speaker:

So intrinsicmedicine.com,

Speaker:

is that where people can go?

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

They can get more information.

Speaker:

They can get on your list.

Speaker:

I love that we're doing studies,

Speaker:

but we're also seeing how

Speaker:

we might be able to have

Speaker:

some inroads to some

Speaker:

functional doctors and

Speaker:

getting people that are really...

Speaker:

really understand working on the gut,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

It's not like bringing it to

Speaker:

the gastroenterologist who

Speaker:

barely even says probiotics

Speaker:

are good for you.

Speaker:

So I want to make sure like

Speaker:

that people know where to get you if,

Speaker:

if they haven't questions.

Speaker:

And also like this, this is cut,

Speaker:

it's cutting edge, but at the same time,

Speaker:

it's, I love this.

Speaker:

Cause this is like the end,

Speaker:

the segue of this,

Speaker:

this whole podcast is

Speaker:

ancient wisdom meets modern science.

Speaker:

And it's like, boom,

Speaker:

this is just one of those

Speaker:

reasons why we were

Speaker:

supposed to meet and

Speaker:

supposed to have this

Speaker:

conversation because this is, to me,

Speaker:

this is where true medicine is.

Speaker:

You're talking healing.

Speaker:

Healing, exactly.

Speaker:

You're not talking curing,

Speaker:

you're talking healing.

Speaker:

There's a big difference

Speaker:

between cures and healing.

Speaker:

And when you teach the body

Speaker:

to heal itself through the

Speaker:

right signals...

Speaker:

And what can people do today?

Speaker:

Treat your gut right, right?

Speaker:

We don't need to go to these

Speaker:

invasive procedures.

Speaker:

You can change the

Speaker:

microbiome in your gut in

Speaker:

one day just by the food you eat.

Speaker:

So we need to make sure

Speaker:

people are also doing the

Speaker:

things they can do, reducing your stress,

Speaker:

eating the right foods,

Speaker:

getting the good prebiotics

Speaker:

and probiotics coming from

Speaker:

the fibers that we're eating.

Speaker:

I love this because it's like,

Speaker:

when in doubt, treat the gut.

Speaker:

and treat the gut right.

Speaker:

And making sure we know now

Speaker:

through this podcast and

Speaker:

through other meetings,

Speaker:

like the gut is so important,

Speaker:

like so important.

Speaker:

Like if it's kind of like

Speaker:

with wellness made simple,

Speaker:

people are like,

Speaker:

what's the supplement I

Speaker:

could use for the blank, blank and blank.

Speaker:

And it's like,

Speaker:

are you optimized on omega-three?

Speaker:

Are you optimized on magnesium?

Speaker:

Are you optimized on these simple things?

Speaker:

Have you done the simple first?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

People are looking for the

Speaker:

complicated because of

Speaker:

technology and all these other things.

Speaker:

It's like, no,

Speaker:

let's teach them like lower

Speaker:

your stress levels.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Remember, like get better sleep, eat right,

Speaker:

do a little exercise like

Speaker:

these things actually

Speaker:

matter far more than these other things.

Speaker:

And and let's take this new

Speaker:

technology around what

Speaker:

the wisdom of timeless

Speaker:

things told us and bring it

Speaker:

to the forefront by doing

Speaker:

what you're doing, which is you're,

Speaker:

you're,

Speaker:

I don't want to say the word

Speaker:

manufacturer.

Speaker:

You're cultivating these

Speaker:

amazing compounds that are

Speaker:

doing such good things in the body.

Speaker:

So I have so many more questions, but I,

Speaker:

we could go on forever on this,

Speaker:

but I love what you're doing, Alex.

Speaker:

I think this is going to be, um,

Speaker:

really, really amazing.

Speaker:

And I really hope that the

Speaker:

access becomes something

Speaker:

that we're going to be

Speaker:

talking about next time.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Thank you, Josh.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And just to emphasize the point, you know,

Speaker:

it's, you know,

Speaker:

this is a listening exercise, right?

Speaker:

Like I want to hear from other patients.

Speaker:

And so, you know,

Speaker:

I don't just want to put

Speaker:

you on an email list so I

Speaker:

can send stuff to you.

Speaker:

I want to hear your stories because,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

At our core,

Speaker:

we're a patient solutions company.

Speaker:

And so having that dialogue

Speaker:

is truly informative of

Speaker:

kind of like where we take things,

Speaker:

how do we prioritize them, and

Speaker:

you know, Josh,

Speaker:

you kind of previewed it is

Speaker:

there are things that can be done today,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker:

I don't want,

Speaker:

also don't want somebody

Speaker:

sitting there idly saying, Hey, well,

Speaker:

what can I do?

Speaker:

Let me wait for it.

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

do a dietary fiber audit on yourself,

Speaker:

like actually pay attention

Speaker:

to those labels, quantify it.

Speaker:

Ninety-five percent of us

Speaker:

are not at our dietary fiber goal,

Speaker:

which is like thirty grams a day.

Speaker:

Ninety-five percent of

Speaker:

Americans are not at that.

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

It may be a slight ick factor,

Speaker:

but you know what?

Speaker:

Look, get to know your poop.

Speaker:

It's literally like your

Speaker:

bowel movements are a massive,

Speaker:

ever-present diagnostic for

Speaker:

your current state of being.

Speaker:

Get to know the bristle

Speaker:

stool form scale so that

Speaker:

you can quantify what number you are.

Speaker:

every day,

Speaker:

and then cultivate the awareness

Speaker:

and how you feel associated

Speaker:

with where your bowel movement is.

Speaker:

I'll tell you what,

Speaker:

you're going to say like, huh,

Speaker:

when I'm like a four,

Speaker:

those are pretty good days

Speaker:

versus when I'm at the

Speaker:

opposite ends of the spectrum.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And then you can also start

Speaker:

to exercise discernment around diet,

Speaker:

around the stress, around the sleep,

Speaker:

and start to see how these

Speaker:

things all stack on.

Speaker:

And so it's a very powerful

Speaker:

diagnostic opportunity that

Speaker:

you can use to

Speaker:

self-regulate and self-optimize.

Speaker:

And so, yeah.

Speaker:

So thanks for having me, Josh.

Speaker:

And I look forward to- Oh, I love it.

Speaker:

This is a great conversation.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker:

it's in my daily dozen is bowel

Speaker:

movements.

Speaker:

It's like talking to people

Speaker:

about the things they could do for,

Speaker:

if you don't want to look at the scale,

Speaker:

just remember poop snakes.

Speaker:

Like if you're,

Speaker:

if you're not pooping snakes once,

Speaker:

at least once a day,

Speaker:

we're not in good place.

Speaker:

It's not,

Speaker:

we got to get over the fact that

Speaker:

poop is like a bad thing to talk about.

Speaker:

It's like,

Speaker:

if you're not detoxifying and

Speaker:

that thing doesn't look right,

Speaker:

nothing else is going to work right.

Speaker:

So yeah.

Speaker:

Alex, this was amazing.

Speaker:

Thank you so much, my friend.

Speaker:

I know that we're going to

Speaker:

be instantly friends and

Speaker:

we'll be talking about this

Speaker:

more and more.

Speaker:

Wonderful.

Speaker:

All right, everybody.

Speaker:

This was an amazing little chat we had.

Speaker:

Treat your gut right.

Speaker:

Everything else will work well.

Speaker:

Stay well.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Beyond the Pills

About the Podcast

Beyond the Pills
Where Timeless Wisdom Meets Modern Science For True Healing
Discover a new path to vibrant health with Beyond the Pills, the podcast that merges ancient wisdom with cutting-edge science to help you unlock your full wellness potential. Join host Josh Rimany, a seasoned pharmacist turned functional medicine expert, as he dives into the latest insights on supplements, nutrition, biohacking, neuroscience, mindfulness, and energy medicine. Each episode is designed to simplify your wellness journey and empower you to live with intention, vitality, and balance.

Subscribe to Beyond the Pills and leave a review to help others discover the path to true health and wellness—wellness made simple!