735: The Gut-Brain Connection: Why You Need To Pay Attention

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1:15So happy shopping. And we know we've got bacteria living in and on us on our skin. We've got the skin microbiome. We've got the lung microbiome and we have the microbiome is like all on and in us. It's just that the majority of bacteria is found in our gut. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business. I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore.

1:52Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger podcast. Did you know that 70 to 80 % of your immune system lives in your gut? Like I totally did not know that. Our gut is the core of our health. And since embarking on my own health journey over the last year, I've been looking for products that I can trust to support my overall wellness.

2:27That is when I discovered Just Thrive. Just Thrive are unique supplements clinically proven to deal with common digestive issues to help support your energy, improve your sleep, and promote clear skin, which let's be honest, most of us want all of those things. My guest today is Tina Anderson, and she, along with her husband, created them with us in mind. Tina has a passion for wellness, helping others live their best physical and emotional lives, and today she's unraveling the importance of maintaining a healthy gut and exposing the silent offenders that may be jeopardizing our overall wellbeing.

3:01From antibiotics to toxins in our food, she's going to share insights into how these factors can lead to things that we might be struggling with. Now, trust me when I say it is not all doom and gloom. Tina brings a ray of hope. You'll learn why advocating for yourself, asking the right questions and embracing natural solutions like spore-based probiotics can be game changers on your own health journey. I recently did some tests with my nutritionist, the same one I've been working with for two years. And one of our big focuses this year is my gut health. It is an issue that I am working on resolving.

3:37So today's conversation was literally perfectly timed. If you want to try Just Thrive's products, they're offering a special discount for Gold Digger listeners. They never go this steep. So for a limited time, you can save 20 % off a 90-day bottle of Just Thrive Probiotic or Just Calm at justthrivehealth.com with the promo code Gold Digger. That is like getting a month free, all with a money back guarantee. And trust me, after listening to this conversation, you are going to be running to that website. Now let's dive on into the interview with Tina. Welcome to the Gold Digger podcast. Your sales software shouldn't be a bummer.

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4:52Simply prompt it to pull up a contact, sum up last week's sales, or research your competitors. By automating steps across the sales pipeline, you can take back your time and spend it on more impactful tasks. Close more deals and get on track for your best Q1 yet. Learn about HubSpot Sales Hub at HubSpot.com slash sales. That's HubSpot.com slash sales. Tina, I sometimes feel like when certain guests come into my life, it is like for a reason and the timing is just so perfect. So before we get into why that is, tell me a little bit about you and what you do and what Just Thrive is. Sure. Okay. So I'm Tina Anderson.

5:36I'm the CEO and co-founder of Just Thrive, which is a gut health supplement company. I had a very interesting journey of getting into this role. I started out my career in litigation. I was in trial work doing insurance defense type of work, and it was great, but not really satisfying. And boy, did it take a lot out of me, you know, as far as hours and time. And then my husband and I decided we wanted to start a family. And I just wanted more of a work-life balance. I wanted more time at home with the kids. So I was really lucky. I was able to pivot my career into a family pharmaceutical business where I was like, this is awesome.

6:15Like I had way better hours. I was able to be around my kids way more than I would have if I'd stayed in the litigation role. And then, and I'm like, this is even greater because I get to like deliver life-saving medications to people and do things that are really cool that I'm helping, you know, facilitate people being healthy. But after being in that industry for a while, we started to see a lot of the abuses in the pharmaceutical industry. We started to see a lot of the over-prescribing of medication. We started to see like the focus on symptoms and like treating symptoms and never focus on prevention or maintaining your health.

6:50And so my husband and I do a lot of deep thinking where we read a lot of Norman Vincent Peale, Wayne Dyer, and the message just kept being sent to us that like, you aren't not doing your life's work. And you know, Wayne Dyer always talks about that. You need to do your life's work. And we just didn't feel like we were doing something that was in line with who we are and the way we were living our lives with our three children. And so through my husband's naturopath, we were able to license these really incredible strains of probiotics. And before we did that, we launched all of this time researching about gut health and why it was so important.

7:27This was shortly after the Human Microbiome Project was launched by the National Institutes of Health that told us more about the gut than we ever knew before. And my husband's naturopathic doctor presented these strains to us and we were like, oh my God, this is it. He's like, this is really like the real deal. These are so different than any probiotic strains out there. And so we looked into it. We're like, this is the real deal. And so we, from there, we launched Just Thrive and it's been the most gratifying career journey we've ever been on. You know, doing something that's actually impacting people's lives and changing people's health has been amazing.

8:03And it's, like I said, the most gratifying career journey I've ever been on. Wow. Wow. So like I said, I feel like there's a reason why I'm talking to you today. And one thing that I've been deeply investigating for myself is gut health. And I feel like a baby student in this area, but I've been working with an amazing nutritionist and we have really over the last two years just transformed my health in so many ways, but there's still some persistent issues. And I think that all things come from the gut, right? So can you talk to me about why is gut health considered this foundation of overall wellbeing?

8:41Like what is the significance around our guts? Yes. Okay. So our gut is made up of all of these micro, our microbiome is all these micro trillions of microorganisms. So bacteria, fungi, all different types of microorganisms that are dictating our overall health. And that Human Microbiome Project that I mentioned really told us, this was just launched in like 2007. I mean, it's pretty recent. And it told us more about the gut than we ever knew before. And what it basically told us is the gut is dictating virtually every aspect of our overall health. You know, for many years, we kind of associated like diarrhea, constipation, gas, and bloating as being a gut issue.

9:24And those are certainly signs that you have a gut issue. And it's usually what brings people awareness of their gut issues. But what we now are finding out is that it's hard to find any non-communicable disease that's not associated with some type of imbalance in our gut. So when we're talking about anxiety, depression, like mental health issues, those are all stemming from our gut. We know that serotonin is produced in our gut. 90 % of our serotonin is produced in our gut. Then we talk about allergies. You know, allergies, when you have an allergy, that's a sign that there's some serious gut imbalance going on, some leakiness of your gut lining, which is we could go into later.

10:01But our immune system, 80 % of our immune system is found in our gut lining. So our immune cells will cease to function if our gut is not healthy, if our microbiome, our bacterial cells are not signaling to our immune cells to like start firing when there's an invader. So, you know, I mean, it's hard to find if any, like I said, any like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, all of these diseases are really stemming from an imbalance in our gut. And so it is so important to be focusing on our gut health when we're talking about overall health. You know, for many years, people would be like, oh, I'm going to take in, you know, multivitamin.

10:41And that's great. It's great to take a multivitamin. It's great to take vitamin C, vitamin D, whatever those nutrients that you want to be taking. But if your gut is inflamed, it's not absorbing those nutrients. So it's super important to be focusing on our gut health when we're on a health journey. So how do we start to pay attention to this? Because I feel like especially in the health and wellness world, there's so much focus on everything else, right? Like, why are we not hearing about this more? Because this is something, too, that I've been really looking into with my daughters. because my oldest daughter always has tummy aches.

11:18And I'm like, there's something going on that is causing this. So why do we not hear about this more? Yeah, it's, I don't know. And that's why I'm so grateful for people like you that brought me on to bring this awareness because we know, I mean, this is undisputed by experts that the gut is really dictating so much of our health. And I think it is starting to get out there more. I do think that even conventional doctors are talking about this more. And what's sad is that we are living in a world that's so offensive to our gut health. So we think of antibiotics, for example. We all know now there's more awareness not to go on an antibiotic right away.

11:58Doctors aren't prescribing them like they used to. But we do know that antibiotics, just a single course of antibiotics, will wreak havoc on your gut for up to two years, it could be. So, you know, and that's not to say antibiotics save lives. And I'm always a fan of like, you know, there's times where we need to be on certain medications. I'm not bashing medications. I am. I do feel like we should empower ourselves to know, like get to a root cause. If you need to be on a medication, make it temporary and make it figure out what is the root cause? Why do I have this underlying condition? And then, you know, then peel the layers away.

12:32But you don't want to be on medication for too long. But back to the antibiotics, antibiotics kill the bad bacteria, which is why you want to be on an antibiotic. But they're also destroying all the good bacteria. And it is so difficult for that good bacteria to come back. And so you've seen this all the time. People go on an antibiotic and then they get yeast infections or they have other issues that happen because that your good bacteria is now not able to grow. And it's being outgrown and outweighed by the bad bacteria in our gut. So, you know, we, the antibacterial hand soaps and sanitizers, we have like, we're trying to kill our bacteria in this world when really bacteria is our friend.

13:11I always feel like bacteria needs a PR campaign because bacteria is like really good for us. Less than 1 % of the bacteria is actually harmful. It's, it's, we need our good bacteria. You know, just the food that we're, the processed foods that we're eating, very disruptive to our gut health. You know, So the glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup, which is Roundup, of course, is sprayed all over our crops and our produce. And we're ingesting that glyphosate and it's killing off our good bacteria. Actually, glyphosate is actually worse than antibiotics because it only targets the good bacteria in our gut.

13:47So it's unfortunate that we're living in this world that's so offensive to our gut health. And it's why I think, you know, when I was a child, I knew one classmate from kindergarten all the way through the end of high school that had a peanut allergy. Now we know. I mean, we have peanut free tables. It's hard to go to a restaurant without them asking, do you have any food allergies? Allergies have become an epidemic. And that is truly, in my opinion, and based on the research, because of the fact that we are disrupting our gut. and our gut is, you know, we are disrupting the gut lining and it's causing this immune response constantly when your gut is leaky.

14:23So it's unfortunate we're living in this world that is so offensive to our gut health. And I do think that there is becoming more of an awareness that we need to focus on our gut. It is foundational for our health. I cannot overstate that enough. It's where we need to start with our health. Do whatever else you want to do, but focus on your gut health. Let's talk about bacteria because this is like so fascinating to me. And I feel like especially living in a post pandemic world where, you know, everyone was using Clorox wipes and you were, you know, all, all of the different things that we were all doing in order to quote, stay healthy.

14:59But in fact, it might've maybe had some adverse side effects. If bacteria did have a PR campaign, what would some of the slogans be like, what would we be learning about it because I do think that immediately when I hear bacteria, I think of negative connotations. So what are some of the benefits of bacteria? Oh my gosh. Well, the bacteria is what's dictating our health. I mean, and so we know I would be like my PR campaign would be like bolster your bacteria, you know, and bolster your good bacteria. And we really want to make sure that we're, you know, there's an ecosystem in our gut. We've got the good bacteria and the bad bacteria.

15:37And I'm never saying, oh, obliterate all of the bad bacteria. That's what's so important is you want to keep that balance, but you don't ever want the bad bacteria to overgrow the good bacteria. And so one of the easiest ways to understand it and kind of compare it is if you envision a garden and there's a garden that's been stepped on and trampled on, and there's weeds growing all over that garden. And you kind of compare that to your gut, where you have pathogenic bacteria taking over your beneficial bacteria in your gut. So back to the garden, you want to make sure that you're nurturing the garden, you're helping get rid of the weeds in the garden, and you're helping bring those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on back to life.

16:15So in our own guts, we have bacteria that, you know, a stool test will tell you, you have zero of this. And I would argue that's not true that you have zero, Like it's there. We just have to bring it back. And that's the approach where many of like the gut health supplements that are out there and other probiotics, the idea is in that garden to go in and like plant a new plant in that garden. But they're not doing anything with those weeds and they're also not doing anything with those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on. Our goal is to like bring the bacteria back to life that already belongs to you because we know it's supportive.

16:52And we know we've got bacteria living in and on us on our skin. We've got the skin microbiome. We've got the lung microbiome. And we have the microbiome is like all on and in us. It's just that the majority of bacteria is found in our gut. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully, that's where today's sponsor, Shopify, comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all U.S.

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19:35Can you kind of clarify, like, what is a probiotic and how does your approach with Just Thrive differ? Like if we're just going to Google after this episode, okay, we get it. We need to get some good bacteria and we need probiotics. Like what are some of the myths around it? Because I feel like I've heard a lot of different things. Yeah. There are so many myths around probiotics. And one of the big ones is that a probiotic needs to be refrigerated to be a good probiotic. You know, doctors weren't even talking about probiotics for many years, but then they finally started talking about them and they're like, make sure that they need, they're refrigerated.

20:09And that came from the idea of that the definition of a probiotic is a live microorganism that confers a benefit onto the host, which is your body. And that first part of the definition, the live microorganism is not met by the overwhelming majority of probiotics on the market. Most probiotics are made up of strains called lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. By nature, those are very sensitive organisms. We very intentionally did not put those strains in our product because we know that they're very sensitive organisms. They have difficulty making that journey from your mouth down to the intestines.

20:47What happens is we have the stomach acid. In order to make that journey to the intestines, you have to go through the stomach acid. the overwhelming majority of probiotics are killed by the stomach acid. The gastric barrier is what they call the stomach. It's meant to be the gastric barrier, but most of those probiotics are dying and you're really getting dead bacteria. Now, dead bacteria will give you some symptomatic type of relief, but it's not making a true change in that garden. Like back to that garden analogy, what those probiotics might do is that if some of them actually do get into the gut, they may plant a new plant in that garden, but they're not doing anything with the weeds and they're not doing anything with those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on.

21:27And I always laugh about like the probiotic needs to be refrigerated myth, because when you think about it, if a probiotic needs to be refrigerated, it means it can't withstand the room temperature of the store shelf. So it wouldn't even survive the room temperature of the store shelf. So how how in the world would it ever survive your body temperature, which is 98.6, much hotter. So that's one of my favorite myths to debunk because people have been like kind of conditioned, oh, I need to get a refrigerator probiotic. And now those probably are better than the ones that you see at mass drugstores that are 999 that are dead before.

22:04They're not alive at all, but probiotics in the refrigerator are alive, but we want them alive in our intestines. I'm literally laughing at this because my husband and I, the other day we ordered groceries and then he was like, are you going to do anything with these? Cause I literally had had like two different bottles of probiotics, one for the kids and one for me up on our butter shelf. And I just hadn't really done anything with them. And he was like, so are, are, are we in or are we out? Like, can we throw these away? Are you actually going to use them? So we literally were just having this debate in our own household.

22:38So I get it. Hopefully this conversation helped make the decision easier. Absolutely. And this is something that we studied. You know, we did a gastric survivability study on this with our strains. They survived 100 % because they're a different type of probiotic. But another big myth out there is that you need a probiotic that has 250 billion CFUs or like the more CFUs, which stands for colony forming units, the better, you know, the better the probiotic. And it's just the typical more is better in America. You know, that's, there's no science behind that whatsoever. What we need to know, one of the studies that we did was a gut model study.

23:15It showed we only have 3 billion CFUs in our product. And it showed that we, after two and a half weeks, it showed a 30 % favorable shift in the gut. I mean, that is profound to actually see that, that garden got 30 % better just after two and a half weeks. I don't know of any probiotic or, you know, pharmaceutical or supplement that has shown that type of improvement into the gut health over such a short period of time. When you start to improve your gut health, what would you notice within your body? What are some of the beautiful side effects or benefits? Yes. I love that question because in the pharmaceutical industry, side effects include suicidal thoughts, bloody stools, all these horrible things.

23:58With ours, it's like I have had so many customers come to us where they're like, oh, I came to this product because I had diarrhea or I had constipation or I had bloating and gas. And that seems to be when people tend to come to us initially. And they're like, but now I started noticing I'm sleeping better. I have better weight management. I have more energy. I have one friend that's like, it saved my marriage because I was always so tired. But when you're not going to the bathroom regularly, think about it. You're keeping all those toxins in. That was something I noticed. I have really never had any gut issues.