Ep. 168: Dr. Robynne Chutkan on the Anti-Viral Gut
Dr. Robynne Chutkan joined our Achieving Optimal Health Conference to discuss the Anti-Viral Gut and why people can have vastly different experiences to the same viral illnesses. Listen in on how we can become stronger and healthier from the inside out!
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Quotes:
Exposure does not always equal infection. Dr. Robynne Chutkan
Most of your immune system is actually located in your gut. Dr. Robynne Chutkan
We're really looking for the Goldilocks immune system: not too active, not too inactive, just right so you can protect yourself.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan
Show Notes:
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Who's basically my worker bee inside my body performing all these bodily functions? Well, it's actually your microbes.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Microbes are very intimately involved in breaking down the food into its constituents and helping it move across that digestive lining so it can get absorbed into the body.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: The gut itself has a significant nervous system and is also intimately involved in making neurotransmitters that communicate with the brain.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: There's a bi-directional communication between the gut and the brain that's essential.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Depending on your complement of bacteria, different genes in your body can be activated, can be turned on or off, and that can affect whether a disease that you're genetically predisposed to get actually develops or not.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: When we talk about immune balance, we're really talking about microbial balance.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Most people who have dysbiosis, who have a disrupted microbiome, will have bloating.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Dysbiosis doesn't just affect what's going on in your GI tract. Dysbiosis affects your entire body, and it's linked to many of the autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Your complement of gut bacteria will determine how much energy you can harvest from the different food.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: The gut influences what's going on in the brain through production of neurotransmitters.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: The brain influences the gut by affecting gut motility, secretion, nutrient delivery and microbial balance.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: You have really two immune systems. You have an innate immune system that you're born with and an acquired immune system that you develop over your lifetime.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Those 30 feet of digestive superhighway that are running really from your mouth to your anus, that is actually where most of your immune system is.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Interferons are so named because they interfere with viruses, so they literally interfere with that infectious process.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: But there really is a fine balance between taking it too far and super sanitizing everything.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: What we're striving for is a balanced immune system.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: if your immune system is not active enough, those dormant infections can flare up and you can find yourself having active infections.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: That's why people often get flare ups of shingles and herpes when they're stressed, because stress is one of the things that really compromises your immune system.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: If you were on medications like Steroids or certain Biologics that suppress your immune system, you're at higher risk for all of these infections.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: If you have an immune system that is overactive, you can respond to inner internal threats: your body's own gut bacteria, your own tissues and joints in the form of autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Terrain Theory says that if we have healthy soil, if our terrain is healthy, we are less likely to get sick.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: It's not about being too clean. It's actually about being dirty enough. It's making sure we have sufficient healthy microbes.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Five days of a broad spectrum antibiotic of the kind that you might be prescribed for a urinary tract infection or a sinus infection, Just five days will wipe out about a third of your gut bacteria.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: You cannot mitigate the damage of antibiotics by just taking probiotics. That is absolutely magical thinking.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: In your first 18 years of life, when your microbiome is still developing, antibiotics can be particularly egregious.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Looking at the microbiome could predict severe respiratory distress and death with ninety two percent accuracy.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Things like diabetes and obesity it's strongly correlated with short chain fatty acid production.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: No amount of prebiotic fiber that you buy in the store that's made in a factory is going to be as good as actual real prebiotics.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: It can get a little complicated prebiotic, probiotic, post-biotic and then symbiotic, which is a combination of pre and probiotics. But just remember, eat more vegetables. That's all I want you to really remember.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: The short chain fatty acids help modulate your immune reaction to avoid that cytokine storm.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Fatty acids are involved in mucus production that helps to protect the lining and keep it healthy.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: I blend it up in the Vitamix and I drink it down in the morning and boom. That's my medicine and that's also literally like half my vegetable intake done.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: I'm a huge fan of the green smoothie. So again, lots of high fiber plant matter, micro-boosting whole grains and legumes.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: A small amount of protein and fat from animal sources. So you don't have to be a vegan to have an antiviral gut.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Make more room for the plants on your plate.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only eat one food, I would probably pick sauerkraut.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Unfortunately, as we get older, our microbiome deteriorates a little bit.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Are you not getting in your one two three six servings of vegetables a day?
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Has alcohol become your main source of stress relief? And is that something that you need to dial back, or maybe even just give up entirely? Is chronic stress weighing you down?
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: We know that exercise dramatically boosts the immune system. And studies recommend at least 20 to 30 minutes every day.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: You need stomach acid. It's one of your body's main defenses.
Dr. Robynne Chutkan: Immune bliss is really what we're all after these days.
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