Brain & Gut Connection: It’s Not All About Diet & Supplements
Episode 147
This week on Integrative Wellness Radio, Join Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers as they dive into the gut and brain connection. The duo discusses how our body is interconnected with all of our organs working as a whole. Tune in to more about the "control center" aka the brain and its relationship with the gut, more importantly, some things you can do on your own to help improve that connection! Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2022 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 02:52 Every organ is interconnected 08:47 Overworked brain stresses everything else 9:23 The two-way street 16:21 What is the lymphatic system? 19:02 How to activate your vagus nerve? 24:00 Scar issue being the culprit 26:25 It’s time to take a different approach
Topics: brain, unknown, integrative, connection, wellness, nick, time, issues
Key takeaways from this episode
- Uh, the comical part is that I'm, quote-unquote, the brain health physician, but I end up dealing with a lot of gastrointestinal issues to help heal the brain, and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole is, quote-unquote, the expert in the gut.
- Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. **Unknown:** Nick and Dr.
- But at the same time, uh, if the gut, once you get it healthy or sometimes there's some underlying primary issues in the brain, you gotta have to, quote-unquote, be an expert in the brain to help heal the gut and help heal the gut to heal the brain.
- Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
- Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. **Unknown:** Hello, everyone.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. No sleep. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. I feel like I'm always dreaming. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own.
**Unknown:** Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. I am here with Dr. Nick.
**Unknown:** Hello. Hello. And we are kicking off something really exciting. So we're very, very excited about this.
**Unknown:** Um, but also this month, uh, one of the things that we are doing is we are talking about the gut, and primarily because this is such a hot topic nowadays. There's so many people that are dealing with gut issues, but one of the interesting things we wanna bring to the table today is that so many people that are struggling with gastro issues are usually focused on fixing their gut, maybe that's through diet, supplements, medications, et cetera, but sometimes when they're not having success going down that road, there is another piece of the puzzle, and that really comes down to the control center, which is the brain. So, uh, Dr. Nick is actually the one who runs the brain program here at Integrative Wellness Group, uh, in Belmar, New Jersey, and he just had the luxury of giving a wonderful TED Talk out in Chamonix, France.
**Unknown:** So I want him to talk a little bit about that and just a little bit about his approach to the brain and why we even have that program at IWG. Yeah. The, uh, the talk in Chamonix was a fantastic time. Met a lot of great people, and the talk was really just on healing the brain, but through an integrative approach.
**Unknown:** Um, long story short, I have about 13 concussions, and it was really not being able to heal myself as well as going conventional methods, uh, not really giving me the answers to help heal my brain. And it's, it's kind of comical because literally today it's like I love dealing with anything problematic, uh, with the brain, and I thought going into helping to heal the brain, I would be working just with the brain, but it's actually the exact opposite, is that most of the times you have to look elsewhere in the body to, uh, figure out what's actually stressing and causing stress to the brain. Um, so it's... Uh, the comical part is that I'm, quote-unquote, the brain health physician, but I end up dealing with a lot of gastrointestinal issues to help heal the brain, and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole is, quote-unquote, the expert in the gut. But at the same time, uh, if the gut, once you get it healthy or sometimes there's some underlying primary issues in the brain, you gotta have to, quote-unquote, be an expert in the brain to help heal the gut and help heal the gut to heal the brain. Uh. So if you're not confused yet- Um, at the end of the day, it's just everything is super interconnected, and I think that's one of the biggest things that we focus on educating on, is that anything can cause anything, and we don't say that to necessarily overwhelm people, but when you're looking at the body, you have to be extremely strategic in your testing to know where is the foundational problem lying.
**Unknown:** Um, you know, you may have a variety of different symptoms and a variety of different things going on, but there's usually going to be one root and one foundational problem that has to be addressed before many of the other effects or symptoms go away. Right. And that was... I mean, looking back at the, the TEDx talk, that was one of the examples I gave, is, you know, a lady came in with a headache, which we all know is a brain problem, and she had been to a lot of experts.
**Unknown:** And I'm not gonna spoil the whole thing, so you can go online and watch the TEDx talk, but it ended up being actually not a brain problem for her at all, ended up being a gallbladder problem that affected a gallbladder meridian that actually routes up and goes across the brain over the temples that was causing a lot of stress to the brain, but it was actually a meridian problem coming from a gallbladder issue. So it's literally understanding that everything can cause everything, and you have to look at all the systems of the body. So you have to look at the physical system. You gotta look at not only musculoskeletal, but of course the nervous system.
**Unknown:** You gotta look at the biochemistry, and then you can go deeper and look at, yeah, the energy, the chakras, the meridians. Um, and then you can go through and look at, you know, the mental and emotional health as well 'cause everything affects everything. Well, even just backtracking with that is, you know, when you're talking about this concept of, of integrative medicine, and for those of you that are looking s- to dive deeper to really truly understand this, we do do a webinar. Um, we actually offer it, um, every single week, and we do have a prerecorded that you can re- really watch at any time.
**Unknown:** It's actually, uh, located on our website. Um, but just kind of looking at the big picture of what is this concept of integrative medicine, even versus conventional and functional medicine, because all of those styles of medicine are quite different. And obviously when we say this concept of conventional, we're talking about, you know, the traditional modality of getting blood work, uti- utilizing medications and surgery, and then we have this kind of next step of functional medicine, which is doing more elaborate testing, diving deeper into the body, and then using more natural strategies if that's going to be methods to de-stress, if that's going to be a change in diet, or if that's going to be, uh, different types of supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies. But for us, and, you know, really the foundation of Integrative Wellness Group was taking that a step further, primarily because we found a lot of voids with that approach.
**Unknown:** I know that for us, we found it with our own journey- Mm-hmm ... and our health, and then we also saw that some people changed their diet and took a few supplements, and they were dramatically better, and then there was others that hit plateaus. And that's kind of been a big part of your journey with learning more about the brain, learning more about the emotional health and, and mental wellness of people. So if you wanna kind of elaborate a little bit more about the journey for you as a practitioner, learning more about the emotional state and how that impacts health.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Uh, I hit tons of plateaus personally, um, throughout my evolution of getting healthy and increasing my performance back up to where it used to be, um, and at the same time, going through that same plateau evolution with, uh, a lot of patients and clients. And it was, you know, initially I thought growing up, you know, I was an athlete and everything was physical. You know, it was justNutrition was something that you could help increase performance, but it was really, like, how well you could work out, and then learning how well you could recover from those workouts really was really gonna help you gain performance.
**Unknown:** Um, and then you learn that, you know, working out's a, a decent part of the system, but it's only a small piece of the pie. And then learning that, wow, how much our biochemistry and our nutrition, um ... And then learning that it's not really just what we eat, it's what we can really absorb and digest, and that had so much more kind of like aha awakening, you know, groundbreaking moments to be able to increase my performance and also, you know, help heal during the same time. And then I hit a plateau, and it was literally about the same time, uh, helping people, uh, that they hit plateaus as well.
**Unknown:** Like you said, some of them got awesome results, but when there's deeper underlying issues and kind of that break in communication that it doesn't allow somebody to heal as well as myself, that you keep have to, searching for, you know, deeper answers. And for me, I guess the, the next step was kind of a combination of two different things. It was like, you know, we all want everything to be so black and white, but unfortunately or fortunately, that's not how the world work. It's, everything's kind of overlapped and integrated together.
**Unknown:** So it's like you never are 100% working just on detoxing or just on emotional issues or just on this, um, because they're all friends. They're all part of you. So it's like you have to work on everything together to a, a certain extent. And for me, you know, I was doing really well on the physical part, um, cleaned up my diet, but then, uh, I wasn't doing tons of, uh, detoxification.
**Unknown:** I still had some heavy metal toxicities. I still had some micro, um, parasites, microorganisms, uh, inside of me. And it was a combination of working on kind of getting those things out of me, but as well as balancing out, um, my mental, uh, pretty much stressors and issues. And learned a plethora of techniques through that, um, my favorite being the Demartini method, um, that'll be saved for another podcast.
**Unknown:** But literally it just helps you, um, finishing being grateful for what you once resented in your life. So that alone takes a lot of stress off of the brain and helps the emotional, the limbic system really calm down, be able to balanced out. And as you were saying earlier, it's like when the brain's on fire and working overtime, it stresses everything else out. So it's like you can't really fully resolve issues, whether it's gastrointestinal, if your brain's going crazy.
**Unknown:** Um, and at the same time, you know, it wasn't until I could help actually heal my stomach, which produces 90, 95% of serotonin, which is your feel-good, uh, neurotransmitter, that you can't really fully heal the brain. So it's like, that's why I say everything's so overlapped. You can't just, you know, look through, you know, a, a small lens and try to help heal the body. It's like you have to take all the information you can and put the piece of the puzzle together.
**Unknown:** Well, and I think it's really important, you know, to kind of understand that the brain communicates to the gut, but the comm- the gut communicates back. So it's definitely a two-way street. It's not a one-way street by any means. Yep.
**Unknown:** So one of the big focus that we wanna talk about today is really elaborating a little bit more about not necessarily the gut's communication back up to the brain, but more the brain's communication down to the gut. Because when we're talking about, you know, people having imbalances gastrointestinally, maybe they're dealing with, you know, irritable bowel syndrome, maybe they're dealing with inflammatory bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, that can be caused by an array of different things. That can be caused because of different types of bacteria that are in the gut that shouldn't be there, a lack of good bacteria, which is what we call probiotics. It could be fungus.
**Unknown:** It could be candida. It could be so many different things that are affecting our gastrointestinal system that are not necessarily making our gut, uh, function optimally. But one of the biggest things that we see when someone is struggling with motility issues, so constipation- Mm-hmm ... and they're not necessarily having ...
**Unknown:** No, no matter what their efforts are, they're not seeing that positive change in their gut. Maybe they've done some level of detox. Maybe they've done an elimination diet. Maybe they've, you know, taken different types of supplements, probiotics, uh, minerals, et cetera, and they just keep hitting these plateaus and not seeing the changes that they hope for.
**Unknown:** Then we have to look at the control center. We have to look at the brain. And, you know, with Dr. Nick running the brain program, one of the things that he's constantly evaluating for is, is looking at these key pathways that are correlated with the gut.
**Unknown:** And it was kind of funny because I have such a sensitive, like, gag reflex, like every time I take a supplement. So when people tell me they hate taking supplements, I totally relate 'cause every time it's like this whole ordeal, and I'm, like, choking. But he just looked at me, and he's like, "Your brain sucks." And we're married, so, uh, I, I- So I, I can be that blunt with her So I found that kind of just interesting because it really made me start realizing that my journey of healing, I've been very focused on fixing the gut, and I've just been, you know, ignoring the control center essentially. And when I, I shifted, you know, paths and I started to really focus on how my brain was communicating with my gut, I found a tremendous amount of differences.
**Unknown:** So I want you to kind of elaborate a little bit more on, you know, the gag reflex and some of those other, you know, types of tests and things that people might be experiencing on a day-to-day that are indicators that their brain is literally not talking to their gut. Yeah. The brain gets pretty complicated, so I mean- We'll keep it simple ... the easiest- The, the easiest way, um, that the brain communicates with the gut is through the vagus nerve, which is one of your cranial nerves.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. Um, and that being, it's literally, you could think of it like a, a highway. It is, the information travels bilateral. Um, a lot of-What they once thought, you know, I know you wanted me to talk about the brain going to the gut, but we're married and I always have to do the exact opposite of what you ask.
**Unknown:** Um, so before talking about that pathway, uh, they actually originally thought that it was just information, um, but that they now know it's actually m- more physically like a highway that a lot of microorganisms like bacteria, parasites, those things, can actually travel through the vagus nerve, uh, going up to the brain. So a lot of infections that we do have in our gut can actually enter the brain, kind of bypassing that blood brain barrier. So before everyone freaks out- Mm-hmm ... it's all fixable.
**Unknown:** Every- everything is fixable. It's all fixable. Yep. It's, it's a two-way, you know?
**Unknown:** Yeah. It can... Whatever can harm you, can, you can utilize it as a benefit as well. Um, but really looking at, at the brain and how it controls, uh, the motility of the stomach and thinking of digestion is that you, you think of like a m- a muscle contraction, and there has to be tons of these muscle contractions to actually push the food all up around the colon, um, to be excreted.
**Unknown:** And when those muscles aren't contracted, just like, you know, looking at an athlete, uh, you want to make sure that it's not really a muscle problem, it's a nerve firing problem. So the brain communicates to muscles via nerve, and that major nervous system, um, going to the gastrointestinal system being the vagus nerve and all the branches out from there, uh, if that's not being activated, then you're not gonna actually have that muscle contraction. That's not pushing food along, which is gonna cause you to be constipated. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** Um, and sometimes it's very simple just doing, like you said, like whether it's a, a gag reflex or even some gargling that, uh, can stimulate the vagus nerve, um, that's powerful in itself. Mm-hmm. Like, literally we've had people just doing those two simple things, um, change their entire digestion. Yeah.
**Unknown:** And- Well, I think that kind of brings us to the s- ... the symptoms that you might be experiencing to, to the strategies and solutions. So having a either underactive or overactive gag reflex is one of the signs that your vagus nerve might not be functioning optimally. And even just talking about where, you know, the, the pathway of the vagus nerve, uh, the brainstem plays a very significant role in how well the vagus nerve is functioning.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to neck injuries, when it comes to, uh, neck pain, especially high up at the base of the skull, those are all things that c- need to be evaluated from a physical standpoint. Mm-hmm. And both of us, our original degree is as chiropractors, so when we are evaluating the health of the vagus nerve, we're looking at, you know, is the person having an extreme or underactive gag reflex? Um, are they saying that they're unable to gargle because it induces a gag reflex?
**Unknown:** Do they have major neck issues, injuries, concussions, et cetera? So those are all things that need to be evaluated to see if the problem lies there. And they might not even have pain. It could just be inflammation coming from a decreased lymphatic system.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. Uh, so your whole brain has its own separate lymphatic system that drains down, but a lot of times, you know, it's like you could have some tenderness right at the base of your skull, called your occiput. Uh, and there's all lymph nodes there, and there's all lymph nodes that run down. So it's like just because you might not have pain, uh, you could still have increased inflammation, uh, from the buildup of just lymph not moving properly throughout the body.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And well, and not to be funny, but I know that as females, we're all very, like, hyper conscious about our neckline, and, you know, we start joking as we get older we're gonna get a double chin and things like that. And what's really interesting is the women that I work with that come in and have those complaints about their neck and, you know, the way their jawline looks, is most of those women are actually struggling with pretty significant lymphatic congestion. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** And just to, like, elaborate further, for those of you that are like, "I have no idea what a lymph node is or lymphatic system is," is the lymph is throughout your entire body. You have lymph nodes that you're usually aware of when you're sick, because they swell up in your neck and they hurt. But lymph is literally head to toe, and it's the major filtration system of all things bad. It filters out toxins, it filters out chemicals, it filters out, um, bacterias, and it's a huge, huge part of our immune system.
**Unknown:** So when we're dealing with certain types of toxicity, and like a really good example of this, when you're talking about proximity to the brain, proximity of the neck, is dental. You know, there's many compounds that are getting put into our mouths when it comes to silver fillings, even the white fillings, you know, different types of chemicals used in our cleanings. Those things can absorb into the glands and get into the lymph nodes, and that actually can be a big culprit behind the issues with the vagus nerve as well. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** So- Especially mercury, because most things, um, especially like solids, it's gravity, so gravity's gonna push it down. Mercury is what's in the silver fillings, by the way. And, and mercury, uh, when it comes into the body, uh, the body just being such a high temperature, it, for the most part, it's either gonna be a liquid or a gas. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** Um, so it's a lot easier to move around the body, especially gas, uh, being able to go up into the brain affecting, you know, the brainstem and those cranial nerves. Yeah. So these are all things, again, that have to be taken into consideration. So you might be coming, you know, to us or going to a physician and saying, "I have really bad constipation," and you're being looked at as a gut patient, but you could easily be dealing with a dental issue that is affecting lymph nodes.
**Unknown:** You could be dealing with a vagus nerve issue that's because of an old neck injury. You know, there ... The, the possibilities are really endless, and that's why we do these podcasts, is to kind of shed light on what could be going on, because we understand that there are many people that are lost and frustrated, and they just don't know what to do. They're not getting answers, they're exhausted, and they feel like crap.
**Unknown:** And if you look at Chinese medicine, uh, traditionally, it's like every single tooth's connected to a different organ, connected to a different meridian, connected to so many different things. So it's like a gut issue could just be, you know- Yeah ... a tooth problem. Yes.
**Unknown:** So there's- Exactly ... tons, tons of possibilities. Makes it fun. So, um, obviously one of the most important things is giving you guys some strategies on what you can do that can actually help to potentially improve the, you know, issues you're having with this slow motility constipation and gut issues.
**Unknown:** So one of the- Mm-hmm ... most simple things is actually utilizing the gargling and the activation of the gag reflex to start strengthening the vagus nerve. And, um, my understanding of the difference between the two is the activating the gag reflex, which we'll explain how to do that in a safe way um, is that's almost like a strengthening exercise for your vagus nerve. It's almost like the pushups of, for the vagus nerve.
**Unknown:** And then the gargling is more of the cardiovascular exercise for the vagus nerve. So you're getting benefits from the two, um, in different ways, but they're both going to really activate the vagus nerve to get the gut working better and int- to improve the contractions, um, in the muscular system of the gut that Dr. Nick was talking about. So if you wanna elaborate further on some of the exercises that you recommend how to safely activate the, the vagus nerve.
**Unknown:** Yeah. I mean, th- when comparing it, it's kinda like comparing apples to oranges, so it doesn't quite 100% work like that. Um, but when you don't have any motility going on, um, usually you'll wanna do more of that intense activation of the vagus nerve, and that's gonna be more of that gagging reflex, uh, 'cause you need to have a stronger stimulus to really reach that threshold, uh, to activate the vagus nerve to go down and then start kinda like, um, almost like a battery, like clear, boom. And then you can get some activation going down to the, the organs down there.
**Unknown:** Uh, the easiest way I always tell people is you, you brush your teeth hopefully at least two times a day. Um, when you do that- ... when you finish hopefully- Hopefully ... hopefully.
**Unknown:** Uh, and when you do that, you know, at the end just take the toothbrush and gently go back and you wanna gag yourself. Uh, and you'll know that you gag yourself or when you stimulate the vagus nerve when your eyes get water, watery. Mm-hmm. So it's like if your eyes don't get watery, you know that vagus nerve's not being activated, and, you know, if it waters really quick and really strong, you've activated it really, really well.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. Um, at the same time you can have that same watery activation through gargling. Um, this is gonna be kind of like you said, it's like you're doing pushups. You- you're building more of an endurance so- Mm-hmm ...
**Unknown:** that that stimulation can keep occurring. Sometimes if you just, you know, if you're only doing the, the gagging with the toothbrush, you can get that initial kind of activation contraction going on to the, the system, but then it stops because you actually haven't taught it to- Mm-hmm ... to continue, and that's where the gargling can come in. Um, those are probably my two favorite, uh, activities for the vagus nerve.
**Unknown:** Um, but then you can also do ... I mean, there's tons of nerves that go, um, to the whole gastrointestinal system, the colon, the small intestine, everything, and a lot of those nerves also go to innervate the skin. Uh, so you can actually do a lot of stimulation, um, by doing touch, by doing different massage. Uh, sometimes, um, you'll wanna go to, you know, more of a p- a professional for it, um, but doing some fascial manipulation can actually help allow that motility, um, to move properly.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. So those are probably my two go-tos. Um, even just doing ... Like, if you rub your stomach and you find a couple areas that are tender, um, you can even just take your skin and kind of tract it, uh, to the left, to the right, up and down, and seeing if they move the same direction, um, the same amount in every single direction.
**Unknown:** If it doesn't, that just shows that you have some fascia tightness, uh, it's not allowing the skin to move. So really, I mean, you look at the, the body, um, you have skin, you got fascia, and then you got muscle. Mm-hmm. So it's like a lot of times it's the fascia gets, uh, stuck, so just by holding some tension on the skin and pulling the direction that it's not moving, uh, you'll free up those kind of fascial- Mm-hmm ...
**Unknown:** um, tension. And I think it's really important to kind of shed light on that concept because people might be thinking, "Well, why would I have any type of those, like, you know, adhesions or fascial issues in the stomach?" But this could be from sports, like literally getting hit in the stomach. It could also be from women who have had C-sections or other types of abdominal surgeries, like you've had your appendix removed or, you know, other types of hernia surgeries. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** So there's a lot of reasons why we could develop scar tissue or adhesions in the, um, areas of our gastrointestinal system, or I should say our abdomen in general, that can then, uh, cause problems in the nerves firing up to the brain as well. Yep. And even just that communication, you know, going on linear, so it's like we do a lot of scar tissue work at the office for that. Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** You know, even down to, uh, we do a lot of muscle testing to actually see if a scar is causing stress, um, to the nervous system or not. And I've even found out that just a belly button, 'cause that's a scar, you know, they go through- True ... and they cut that. So it's like that has even ...
**Unknown:** It's not that common, but that has even alone caused, um, some interference, uh, for digestion purposes. Yeah. And I think it's a pretty common theme that when we have women that have had C-sections, they usually need some type of work done on that scar- Yeah ... um, to- Especially if it's been cut open more than once.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Yeah. So, so that's a pretty common theme. So for those of you listening, you know, that are ...
**Unknown:** You've had various children or if you had various C-sections and you're dealing with gastrointestinal issues, you know, you might be taking all these really expensive fancy supplements and on this crazy restrictive diet, but it could easily just be, you know, an issue with the scar. And that's not saying that that's not important obviously, it's just like it's how you ... Like we always say, it's like it's not what you do, it's how you do it. Exactly.
**Unknown:** So it's like you could be doing awesome, amazing stuff, but if you do it at the wrong time, uh, you're j- really just not getting the most benefits- Exactly ... um, out of it. Yeah. No, I, I 100% agree.
**Unknown:** So, um, one of the other things I wanted to piggyback off of is with the, you know, fascial work in the abdomen. So if you are doing, you know, the gargling and activating of the gag reflex and it's not necessarily giving you the result that you hope for, sometimes it is a matter of working, you know, from the abdomen up to ... Because again, those nerves are a two-way street. And one of the things that, um, it's not always everyone's favorite, but, um, doing something like coffee enemas can actually be something that will help to activate the nerves of the gut to fire back up to the brain.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. Uh, so that's something that you can easily look up online. Um, Gerson Institute is one of the big institutes, um, or Gerson Therapy, I should say, was the big promoters of the coffee enemas, and they have directions on how to do it properly. Um, but definitely, you know, we always say consult with a physician before really trying some of these things 'cause it's important to make sure you're doing it right.
**Unknown:** S- there's a specific type of coffee. Yes. It's, there's a lot of- Yeah. Don't just go- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** brew your morning coffee and decide to, you know, use that as an enema. It's not -- Don't grab your Starbucks. You have to be strategic . Don't grab your Starbucks and get crazy.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Do not do that. Please don't do that . So, uh, so overall, um-The biggest takeaways, I guess, for today is just understanding that when you're dealing with gastrointestinal issues, especially when you're dealing with constipation, lack of motility, you know, uh, and even if you just have a lot of, like, abdominal pain, you could be trying to fix bottom up, and you need to maybe consider if it's a top-down issue, and it's coming from the neurological system, if that's the vagus nerve, if it is the, the brain from head injuries, concussions, et cetera.
**Unknown:** It's really important to kind of understand that it is a two-way street, and you might be hitting plateaus because the approach is not exactly what your body needs. And if you hit a plateau, it's, I mean, it's great news. It's shown that you, you've done some things that have worked, and now it's just time to take a different approach. Um, so not to beat yourself up about it by any means.
**Unknown:** It's just that you've done all the good you can at this point, and now let's ax- ask some different questions, um, get some different answers, and, you know, keep moving forward. Yeah. And I think that's huge because, you know, so many people go on these really, really restrictive diets, and they feel miserable. You know, they're just like, "I can't go out with my friends.
**Unknown:** I, you know, it's very hard to go to family events." And- Mm-hmm ... you know, that's something that we, you know, we really love what we do because we're able to shed light on that so people can have more balance in their lives because we have the ability with our technology to get to the root cause. So, um, so just, you know, know that you don't have to live this, you know, very restrictive lifestyle to be healthy. It's definitely about balance, and it's about knowing what your body needs because everybody's extremely, extremely different.
**Unknown:** And when you read about all these things online, I, you know, I get it. It's overwhelming. There's a million different diets. There's a million different supplements that are being recommended for indigestion or constipation, et cetera.
**Unknown:** Um, you know, we easily end up having our, you know, a, a giant cabinet in our kitchen that... well, I can relate to it that is filled with supplements. And, you know, we just feel exhausted with some of our efforts. So just understanding that, you know, it's all about the approach.
**Unknown:** It's all about, um, it's all about how you do it. You know, we always say, "It's not about what you do, it's about how you do it." Preach on. So again, you know, this concept of how the brain works with the gut, the gut works with the brain, in addition to inflammatory conditions, autoimmune conditions, indigestion, ulcers, et cetera. So definitely check us out at integrativewellnessgroup.com so you can check out more of our podcast, number one, and then also check out the webinar just to get a little bit more of an understanding about what you might be missing about your health.
**Unknown:** Thanks for joining us. All right, everyone, we'll see you next week. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group, as well as Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming.
**Unknown:** Wide awake, that's okay
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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