There is a non-infectious epidemic occurring right beneath our noses. The likelihood that you are affected is around 50%. It's the epidemic of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO. In this episode of Defiant Health, I run through the rationale that reveals that, even conservatively estimated, more than 100 million Americans have this condition.

Because of the natural permeability of the small intestine designed for nutrient absorption, invading fecal microbes that have ascended from the colon yield a phenomenon called "endotoxemia," or the entry of bacterial breakdown products into the bloodstream. This is how a disrupted small intestinal microbiome can be experienced as depression, anxiety, neurodegenerative disorders like dementia; heart problems such as coronary disease, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure; skin issues such as as rosacea and psoriasis; muscle and joint issues such as fibromyalgia; gastrointestinal issues such as irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease.

Understand how to recognize this process and manage it and you have been given a huge advantage in regaining control over health.

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YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

My original recipe for SIBO Yogurt included three microbes chosen for their ability to colonize or germinate in the small intestine and produce bacteriocins, natural peptide antibiotics effective in killing the species of SIBO. The original formulation therefore specified L. reuteri, L. gasseri, and B. coagulans.

However, B. coagulans proved to be unreliable in generating the high microbial counts we desire to overcome the trillions of invading fecal microbial species of SIBO. I therefore replaced it with B. subtilis, a virtual powerhouse of a bacteriocin producer, producing up to 7 bacteriocins, thereby giving you greater power in pushing back invading fecal microbes in SIBO.

So in this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let me get you acquainted with this powerful microbe that, I believe, can provide major advantages in your efforts to take back control over gastrointestinal and overall health.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

I’ve personally struggled with insomnia for years, unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time, experiencing frequent awakenings, sometimes awakening at 3 or 4 in the morning and unable to get back to sleep. And I tried almost everything short of prescription sedatives: tryptophan, 5-HTP, megadose melatonin, GABA, theanine, the antihistamine diphenhydramine, self-hypnosis, YouTube videos that claim to help you sleep within minutes. The few that worked left me feeling drugged the next day and, if they did not work, I was often left irritable and fatigued.

All this changed when I began experimenting with microbiome strategies. It’s become clear that the gut microbiome plays a major role in determining the quality, length, and content of your sleep. An outsized role is played, however, by the phenomenon of endotoxemia, the entry of bacterial breakdown products into the bloodstream and that is the topic I’d like to focus on in this episode of the Defiant Health podcast. The experience is so preliminary that it has not yet been validated in clinical studies. But if the solution is as easy, inexpensive, and accessible as something that looks and smells like yogurt (it’s NOT yogurt, of course), then why not give it a try? You may be among the roughly 50% of people who experience dramatic improvements in the duration and quality of your sleep.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

You’re walking down the street, minding your own business, just out to run some errands. You’re wearing a black jacket, running shoes, a baseball cap. You pass the doors of a bank. Suddenly, the bank’s doors fly open and a man runs out, a man wearing a black jacket and a baseball cap. You see him running at top speed, disappearing around a corner. Moments later, two policemen burst through the bank’s doors, spot you, roughly spin you around, handcuff and arrest you.

It’s a clear case of mistaken identify, of blaming you for something you had nothing to do with. It’s wrong, it’s frightening, and can lead to all sorts of misery and trouble. You’re going to spend some time in jail, have to hire a lawyer, spend thousands of dollars to defend yourself against accusations that were unimaginable just a short time before.

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Well, similar scenarios play out in health information every day: Something—a component of diet, a blood marker, a lifestyle practice—is wrongly blamed for some health problem such as heart disease or skin rashes or depression.

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let’s discuss how, just as someone could be blamed for a crime they did not commit, all too often, some aspect of life or health is wrong incriminated for some unhealthy outcome. But learn to recognize this pattern and you will be better equipped to protect yourself and get closer to the truth.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

It’s truly an exciting time. The information and science surrounding the microbiome is exploding. It seems that a day doesn’t pass without some new, interesting insight emerges on microbiome questions, providing us with unprecedented insights and strategies to get better control over health, weight management, aging, etc. Look at what we are accomplishing, for example, with our cultivation of L. reuteri and L. crispatus.

But it also means that misinformation, misinterpretation, and sometimes misrepresentation are becoming more common, leading you to make mistakes that could yield ineffective or even harmful results.

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let's cut through the misinformation and get a better understanding of what is going on.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

When the first Wheat Belly book was released in 2011, it quickly leapt to centerstage, gaining a huge worldwide following. Millions of copies of the book were sold in 37 countries, the conversation was featured in major media from network news to Dr. Oz to . I don’t believe that this was due to my personal charm or charisma, but because it worked: people experienced unexpected and substantial health and weight loss benefits even if such things had eluded them for years.

Well, over those 15 years, memories have faded and, sadly, some people have gradually gravitated back to consuming this thing that was essentially created in a laboratory with geneticists and farmers amplifying its toxic effects. People succumb to media, marketing, and the pressures of people around them who are ready to say things like “How can that possibly be true?” or “Everything in moderation” or “Just a little won’t hurt.”

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let’s review the arguments I made in the original Wheat Belly book to remind you that, yes, this is among the most toxic things that has ever emerged from the food and agribusiness industries.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

While CT heart scans are becoming increasingly popular to generate a coronary calcium score as a gauge of coronary atherosclerotic plaque and thereby risk for heart attack, there is actually a treasure trove of other useful information provided by the scan—but often not reported to you.

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, I therefore help make you aware of the wealth of information provided by a CT heart scan that can empower you further in maintaining health and preventing heart disease.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

Inulin is a common fiber, the fiber found in root vegetables like onions, garlic, shallots, asparagus, jicama and many other foods. Humans lack the digestive enzymes, however, for metabolizing inulin, but microbes living in your gastrointestinal track are able to metabolize it. When beneficial microbes metabolize inulin, they convert it to fatty acids with numerous beneficial effects on gastrointestinal, brain, and metabolic health. But, when undesirable microbes metabolize inulin, bad things can happen and cause you to experience symptoms such as excessive bloating, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, mental effects such as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, worsening joint pain or skin rashes. The difference is all about location of these microbes, where they are located in the 30-feet of your gastrointestinal tract.

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, Let’s therefore discuss how to use the common fiber inulin to map where such microbes are living in your GI tract and, should you determine that undesirable species are living where they don’t belong, what you can do about it.

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed