Dr. Michael Ruscio: Gut Health: Healing Autoimmune Disease – Ep 163
The Inside Scoop on Gut Health
Gut health is a hot topic in the health and wellness industry right now so who better to turn to then Dr. Michael Ruscio himself?! This is Dr. Ruscio’s second time on the Open Sky Fitness Podcast and he had so much great information to share with us and answered a ton of questions from our Open Sky Fitness Podcast group on Facebook.
Dr. Ruscio is a Functional Medicine Practitioner and the Lead Researcher in current IBS study. He’s also the host of his own podcast, Dr. Ruscio Radio and will be publishing a book on gut health later this year!
Before we get into our interview, Devon and I took some time to talk about which foods and drinks can cause us to feel drowsy and crash soon after consuming them. Some you might expect, but otherwise could surprise you! We’ll list the foods and drinks at the end of this blog post.
Building a Healthy Gut
“The gut is so important because it’s really the interface between the outside world and your body. When we swallow food, it’s really the outside world passing through. We have to keep out bacteria, fungi, parasites, and more. What we consume can lead to problems in our immune system and cause inflammation.” – Dr. Michael Ruscio
According to Dr. Ruscio, if you’re already healthy and following a healthy lifestyle, digging deep and doing an investigation on your gut health is logical, good place to start to get to the next level of wellness. How so? Because so many problems are caused by poor gut health. So, by focusing on the gut, you can get to the root of so many different problems.
If you have an unhealthy gut, you may be experiencing the following symptoms:
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Depression
- High cholesterol
- Low thyroid
- Female hormone imbalances
“Are you still experiencing all these symptoms even though you’ve improved you diet and your lifestyle? If yes, then do a gut check.” – Dr. Michael Ruscio
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
A Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) as similar symptoms to other digestive problems such as:
- Bloating
- Abdominal pain
- Loose stools
- Diarrhea
- Acid reclux
However, there are also several non-digestive symptoms that are associated with SIBO such as:
- Restless leg syndrome
- Rosacea
- High cholesterol
- Hypothyroidism
- High blood sugar
People who are overweight, depressed, have insomnia, or have Celiac disease can be possible candidates for SIBO.
SIBO – Can You Recover?
What Triggers an Autoimmune Disease?
“The small intestine harbors the largest density of immune cells in the entire body. This is why there is such a profound impact between someone’s gut health and their immune system as well as autoimmunity.” – Dr. Michael Ruscio
An autoimmune disease is defined as a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells.
Autoimmune diseases range from Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism to rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac, and Crohn’s Disease. If not treated, an autoimmune disease can lead to skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis as well as depression or damage the brain’s health.
An autoimmune disease can be triggered by several factors.
Many autoimmune diseases develop because of early life factors such as genetics or a person’s environment. Was someone born via a C-section or vaginal birth? Were they breastfed or given formula as a baby? Did they grow up in a hygienic city or at a farm or in a large city with lots of pollution?
As Dr. Ruscio stated in the interview, sometimes there are some things that are just out of our control and we have to do the best we can. Fortunately, there are things that we can do to stop or decrease the development of autoimmune disease:
- Follow a healthy diet like Paleo
- Take Vitamins; especially Vitamin D
- Reduce stress
- Heal infections
Where to Find the Best Help
Before seeking out professional help, you may be able to do some experimentation with diet lifestyle factors on your own. If you’re not seeing any signs of improvement, then go visit someone who can help you.
To change your lifestyle, you can focus on trying the following:
- Paleo diet
- Low FODMAP diet
- Specific carbohydrate diet
- Vitamins
- Vitamin D
- Fish oil
Alternative Providers vs General Practitioner
Alternative providers are good at prevention and getting to the root cause, but not necessarily when it comes to screening major health concerns and providing patients with the medicine that they need to heal. We shouldn’t ignore conventional medicine when we need it for early detection and management of disease.
See both as well as a functional medicine provider. Look for a general practitioner who has an open, objective mind to alternative medicine and won’t just regard it as something bogus.
The price of each will depend on the tests and your insurance. However, according to Dr. Ruscio, getting the following done is a great start:
- Gut screening
- Breath test
- Stool test
- Blood panel
Finding a Functional Medicine Provider
Dr. Ruscio further discuses it in his podcast episode, How to Find a Good Functional Medicine Doctor, but you can check out the following websites and always do a complete check to see which program they’ve done. It’s very important to have a complete idea of what they’ve studied and what their background is to make sure they’re a good match for you:
Sneaky Foods That Make Us Crash
“Processed foods like high carbs don’t give the body a lot of nutrients. Therefore, the body has to use all this energy to break down and digest processed foods, but then that process isn’t giving the body any nutrients to create more energy. When you eat processed foods, you start to deplete your body and you don’t have the nutrients to recover it.” – Devon and Rob Dionne
Bad, Fatty Foods
We can expect to experience a huge energy crash when we eat:
- Pizza
- French fries
- Buffalo wings (fast food, not homemade)
- Fried fish
- Any type of fried food
Popular Breakfast Foods
Processed foods that everyone eats for breakfast and they don’t think they’re negatively affecting their bodies:
- Pancakes
- Bagels
- Toast
- Muffins
- Pastries
- Cereal
- Smoothies
- Sugar bomb coffee drinks like:
- Lattes
- Macchiatos
- Frappuccinos
Sugar Bombs
Like highly addictive drugs, sugars give you a spike of energy and then you crash afterwards. While we’re consuming it, we feel amazing, but then we just end up crashing and feeling worse than before grabbing that piece of candy or smoothie from Jamba Juice.
Sugary drinks that we think are healthy or okay to consume but truly aren’t include:
- Fruit smoothies
- Vegetable smoothies with 3-4 different fruit juices
- Juices with tons of fruit
Why are fruit smoothies juices so bad for us? Because we’re just getting the sugars and not the actual fiber. If you do a vegetable juice, make sure it’s celery or cucumber based juice. If it tastes super sweet, it’s probably not good for you. You can add lemon juice or ginger to give vegetable juices a tasty flavor.
Caffeine and Energy drinks
Of all coffee and caffeinated drinks, energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster are the worst. They have different chemicals that are used to trigger caffeinated response that pump your adrenals until you feel like you have no energy left.
If you’re going to drink coffee, then try to add coconut oil or drink Bulletproof coffee so that you don’t have a huge spike of energy, it’s easier to digest, and experience a natural energy lift for a longer period of time.
Adding dairy or drinking coffee with a meal can also slow down the side effects of coffee.
Surprising Foods That Zap Energy
- Fat-free yogurts have 35g of sugar and cooked down fruits lose their nutrients.
- The more processed the oatmeal is like instant oatmeal, the worse it is for your body.
- Bananas can make us feel sluggish because of the magnesium and then hungry again with it’s high sugar value.
- Cherries with the pits have tons of melatonin so they’re great for a bedtime snack!
Join The Open Sky Fitness Podcast Group!
That’s right! We have a closed Open Sky Fitness Podcast group on Facebook where you and everyone have the opportunity to talk about your health and fitness goals in a safe environment. We post workouts and start discussions about how to be strategic around finding a healthier you. Check it out!
Start Building Your Own Workouts and Meal Plan!
Download Results Tracker here!
Click To Download Home Workout Templates or text the word, “lifting,” to 33444 to download the templates.
Download the OSF Food Journal Now!
Have a Question or Review for Rob or Devon?
We love answering questions and getting feedback from you, our listener! If you have any questions to ask us, want to share a review of the show, or tell us any suggestions for guests/topics that you think would be great to have on the show, just email Rob at rob@openskyfitness.com or Devon at devon@openskyfitness.com or you can also leave us a review at www.openskyfitness.com/review, ask a question in the closed Open Sky Fitness Facebook Group and even text OSFreview to 33444 to get the link.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode
00:00 Open Sky Fitness Introduction
1:15 Opening comments with Rob and Devon
1:30 Check out last week’s episode – OSF 162 – Barefoot vs Arch Support Shoes: Which One is Better?
2:20 About today’s episode about foods that make you crash and gut health with Dr. Michael Ruscio
2:50 Learn more about our Open Sky Fitness Facebook Group
4:20 Fill out an application for One-On-One Coaching Sessions with either Rob or Devon
5:30 Why do certain foods make us tired?
9:20 Breakfast foods that send you back to bed
12:00 Sugars negative affect on us
14:00 Why we should avoid fat-free yogurts
15:00 Which oatmeal is good for you and what to avoid
16:00 Bananas can be a sleep aid
18:00 Bad fat foods: High fat, processed foods
19:20 Cherries with pits are great before bed
21:05 Caffeine and energy drinks
24:00 Introduction to Dr. Michael Ruscio
27:45 Why should we focus on gut health?
31:00 Description of autoimmune disease and some common ones
35:00 Signs of developing Crohn’s Disease and whether we can avoid them or not.
37:45 Autoimmune disease symptoms – what to look out for
39:30 Can we diagnose ourselves? How do we heal?
42:00 Should the first step for people be to go see a general physician? What should they do when they start noticing symptoms?
49:30 Where to find a functional medicine doctor in your area
52:00 Dr. Ruscio’s first steps to helping a new patient and what it costs to get help
55:20 How many of Dr. Ruscio’s clients see fixed results from changing their diet and lifestyle
56:40 What happens during a SIBO breath test for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth?
58:40 Symptoms of SIBO
1:00:20 If you suspect yourself of having SIBO, but you’ve changed your lifestyle, is there anything else you can do by yourself or with a practitioner?
1:04:35 Can gut health affect your mood?
1:08:00 How important are probiotics? Can I take probiotic capsules everyday or is it a waste of money? Should healthy people be taking these supplements?
1:12:00 Supplement brands that Dr. Ruscio recommends
1:13:45 What’s a prebiotic?
1:14:35 What happens to gut health and an autoimmune condition if you’ve had your thyroid taken out?
1:15:55 If you have a funny tummy or an unpredictable stomach, what are some things you can do to neutralize stomach acids?
1:17:20 Digestive enzymes are really big in the Keto world, but are they necessary?
1:18:10 If you already eat a balanced diet, do you need to supplement gut health with anything? Are gut detox health packages worth it?
1:22:30 Closing comments with Rob and Devon
1:23:55 Open Sky Fitness Closing
RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE SHOW:
- Leave us an iTunes review
- Join the The Open Sky Fitness Podcast Group on Facebook
- Contact Rob and Devon to apply for One-On-One Coaching Sessions
- Check out last week’s episode – OSF 162 – Barefoot vs Arch Support Shoes: Which One is Better?
- Listen to our first interview with Dr. Michael Ruscio for Episode 26 – Is Your Favorite Food Destroying Your Gut?
- Visit Dr. Michael Ruscio’s official website
- Connect with Dr. Michael Ruscio via:
- Work with Dr. Ruscio to improve your health
- Tune into the Dr. Ruscio Radio Podcast
- Listen to Dr. Ruscio’s podcast episode – How to Find a Good Functional Medicine Doctor
- Check out Dr. Ruscio’s podcast episode with Dr. David Perlmutter: The Gut-Brain Connection
- Tune in to the OSF Podcast episode 156 with Dr. David Perlmutter – The Inflammation Connection: Brain & Gut Health
- Read Brain Maker by Dr. David Perlmutter
- Find a good Functional Medicine Provider via:
- Learn more about Paleo f(x)
- Discover Klaire Labs probiotics
Get Fit with Free Downloads!
To Download Rob’s FREE workout templates click below**
Ask Rob a Question or tell him what is working for you: Email Rob@OpenSkyFitness.com
Support This Podcast
To leave a Review for Rob and the Open Sky Fitness Podcast CLICK NOW! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Contact our amazing sound engineer Ryan? Send him an e-mail here: info@stellarsoundsstudio.com
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.
Do you have any questions (and would like to hear yourself on the Open Sky Fitness Podcast)? Click on the link on the right side of any page on our website that says “Send Voicemail.”
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!
Thanks for listening/reading Episode 163 with Dr. Michael Ruscio: Gut Health: Healing Autoimmune Disease! We hope you have gained more knowledge on how to be a healthier you.
