Gastrointestinal Health with guest Dr. Anna Toker / Part Two


Gastrointestinal Health with guest Dr. Anna Toker / Part Two


Dr. Anna Toker is a distinguished, award-winning Board Certified Colorectal Surgeon with nearly 20 years of experience in the Dallas area. Renowned for her ability to translate complex medical concepts into everyday language, Dr. Toker attracts patients from across the country seeking her surgical expertise and nutritional guidance as seen in her highly acclaimed “Gut Check Program.”

For more information about Dr. Toker's programs or to book an appointment go to:

DrAnnaToker.com


Episode Transcript
- It's once again time to get gutsy with Liz Hall and her expert guests on the Gutsy Bay Podcast. - We are back again with Dr. Anna Toker. I saw on your IG post, uh, microbiome Diversity Challenge. Can you explain a little about that? - So, okay, this, now this is fa Now I am a microbiologist by training. I have a master's degree in microbiology. It's what I did prior to going to medical school, um, because I thought I was gonna be an MD PhD in like cure cancer or save the world or something, right? This did, I'm not designed for a quiet lab. You probably could've been out. Um, okay. But so the microbiome thing has always fascinated me. For 35 years ago when I was in graduate school, um, there was, we were just starting DNA sequencing, like it was very early in the technology. There was a technology for the Human Genome project that was out in California. So a lot of the PhDs that left our program went to California and they were sequencing the human genome. Mm-Hmm. now, somewhere around the year 2000. So, you know, it took them about 10 years. They did it. They accomplished the mission. And now you got all these scientists, most of whom are microbiologists and biochemists with nothing to do. And naturally they turn to the highest source of bacteria known to man, which is inside your gut. And they start to realize that we can't actually name all of the thousands of species that there are, you know, tens of millions, trillions. I mean, like the number, the sheer number of bacteria, the number of species is well into the thousands, if not 10,000 different species. And, um, it's, we can't, I don't think it's knowable. Ultimately, maybe it will be every person is a little bit different. Your microbiome is sort of like a fingerprint. And it is constantly changing. It's changing because of your environment, because of your diet, and because of your own stress levels and neurology, right? So you, the human person exert a stress on this microbiome, but then the microbiome turns around and either rewards you or punishes you with neurotransmitters, vitamin cofactors, et cetera. It's a fascinating thing there. Most diseases, when they test your microbiome, you will have a dysfunctional microbiome. A microbiome that does not suit your purpose. And so then the question has become, and it's an interesting question, which came first, the dysfunctional microbiome or the disease. And as it turns out, the dysfunctional microbiome came first. And this is very likely how modern food is injuring us. And this is my theory on the topic. There, there is one guy, God bless him, and I do follow his research. I don't know know if he has social media or not. He's a typical scientist. He is got dozens of papers on this topic that he started publishing in 2020. I mean, uh, no, 2000 on celiac disease. Where's colorectal surgeon? I take care of that for a living. And what causes celiac disease? Wheat and these celiac patients make an inflammatory protein zonulin. I know the names. There's an inflammatory protein these patients make. Mm-Hmm. to their surprise, every human being makes that same protein. It's just celiac patients make it in a huge quantity. And the average person doesn't make it in a huge quantity. But what they've been able to show is any disease, every disease that they have tested thus far, those patients exhibit ev elevated levels of that inflammatory protein. And if, if you remove gluten, this is why I get tell everyone, go gluten free. Right? So if you remove gluten and you calm down intestinal inflammation, you'll get rid. Unless you're a celiac patient, you'll get rid of the protein. That's so far, they have lynchpin as the origin of all human disease that's chronic. And it seems so simple. So how do you get rid of inflammation in the intestinal tract? You do that with the help of the bacteria in your intestines. And, and this is the evil. And I don't, I'm not saying people do this on purpose. I'm not saying big commercial interest are really, are actually trying to murder you, but they're, they're making products that are safe, quote unquote, technically for the human person with no collateral studies on what this is doing to your microbiome. Right? So artificial sweeteners are the classic example. Now, some of them do cause cancer, they kind of hid that. I'm gonna give, okay, let's not talk about that one. 'cause that one causes cancer. But some of the others don't cause cancer. Some of them are natural and organic. Xylitol, erythritol. These sugar alcohols are organic, they're made in nature. Mm-Hmm. , they have very few calories, almost zero, horribly damaging to your microbiome. So I just described something that's organic and natural that you would buy. They blend it into stevia, they blend it into monk fruit. So you think you're doing something healthy by not getting the chemical sweetener all organic, and yet you are still destroying your microbiome because there's erythritol or xylitol or allulose or something like that in there. Those natural sugars damage the microbiome in the microbiome that is damaged causes inflammation which releases the zonulin even in someone who's not doing a gluten diet. Right? So you wanna avoid the artificial sweeteners to make the the bacteria grow in balance. You'll want to diversify your diet. So human beings are creatures of habit. Mm-Hmm. . Like I talk to patients daily who have had this same breakfast, same lunch, and same dinner every day of their lives for the last 60 years. And they will tell you they cannot possibly be my diet. I've been eating this diet for 60 years. And then you try to explain to 'em, well, I know, but they're treating food differently and they're adding stuff differently without telling you, you know, and the switch from sugar to corn syrup. It's hard for people to wrap their minds around fat complexity. If you huon person can think outside your box a little bit, if you have issues, a chronic illness, a belly pain, and you are eating the exact same thing every single day, even if you're trying to lose weight and you're just eating less, you're still eating the same thing. And your obesity is dependent on a functioning microbiome that calms down inflammation. You have to have a calm intestinal tract to lose weight. Mm-Hmm. , you have to have calm intestinal tract to get out from PMS and endometriosis and, um, menopause. This is all based on the microbiome. So the microbiome challenge was basically this. Think outside the box. Try to eat 20 different species of vegetation, plant fruits and veggies. You gotta make sure you know where they're source, that they're not spoil sprayed with herbicides or wax or that ede stuff that Bill Gates wants to Yeah. Don't do the ed appeal. Don't do the Yeah. Appeal. Yeah. . Right? Well, because you want all those organisms, all those plants have their own microbiome. Mm-Hmm. . So when you consume them, you're consuming the plant's microbiome. So that's number one, a probiotic to you. Number two, the colors in all those vegetation and choose as many colors as possible are what we call phyto phenols. And the microbiome likes diversity of the phyto phenols. So if you can avoid herbicides and pesticides, if you can eat them raw, if not blend them. So at least they're not, when you cook them, you kill the bacteria. You don't get the probiotic effect. Um, some people have to, they can't digest veggies very well, so they have to kind of cook. But if you blend them, you can digest them better. Right? So that was the whole concept. Think outside the box. If you're still confused, um, then it's time to do some microbiome testing and that'll, that'll give you a better diet to follow. But out the box, how many different species can you eat in a day? Rainbow. Right? Make a rainbow. Yeah. That's a good one. a rainbow. Colorful foods. Yes. - I also saw on your IG post, you have two, uh, Tuhi Tuesday. I love that. - Tuesday. Yes. My favorite. We got semi shadow band for saying the word tushie also. Really? I, I mean, I don't know. I almost give up, but I choose not to give up. Yes. My tushie Tuesday, I originally started doing probably five years ago. And uh, when I had no Instagram follow my own patients wouldn't even follow it. But if their ass hurt, they would start following it because all of a sudden they're like, oh, toker. Yeah. That's the advice you give for hemorrhoids. Yeah. Share it with your friends. So there's not enough of me to go around is the issue. A lot of primary care doctors will hear you got hemorrhoids, they'll send you a referral Tomorrow, we got 200 referrals last week. How am I gonna see 200 patients? That means probably this week we got the same number. I mean, I don't know. I can't see these many patients. So most of those patients do not ever need an operation. So my office, when they talk to you, will triage who needs surgery, who is like, this has been a problem for 20 years, and then we'll refer them to Tihi Tuesday. We do that on, on YouTube. That way it's cataloged. And then we also do it on Instagram and Facebook. And so most of my Tuesdays are specifically related to my specialty. The other days of the week, I have a tendency to venture out into other things, microbiome, how it affects your blood sugar. Um, or I, I sit on the medical board for a company called Super Patch. So I do videos on how to use their technology. We're about to launch a digestive product called ZI seven. So I'm gonna start to do videos on that. So my Monday through Friday are kind of those other things. Tuesday typically is a digestive thing. So, - So uh, speaking of, is it ZI seven, right? So can you share some Yeah. Share some of that please. - Yeah. We launch July 8th. Right now there is a pilot program going on just to make sure we know what the feedback from people are. What are the most frequent asked questions this way when we launch Mm-Hmm. . Um, there's already a database of, these are the most common ask questions. I mean, I made a guess what a thought the most common would be, but basically the majority of the people that come into our office are gonna complain of what is basket termed IBS. Mm-Hmm. IBS are the more severe. And there's IBS diarrhea. There's IBS constipation. These patients eat, they get belly pain, they have gas bloat. Some of them may have reflux and heartburn. Their primary care doctors or gastroenterologists put 'em on antacids, never take them off the antacids. That only makes it worse. And so what is the kind of one stop shopping for those people? And right now there is none. So this is a digestive aid product that's kind of all encompassing. So I break the digestive process into seven components. The first is the kind of the processing of the food, the churning and the burning, so to speak. Mm-Hmm. . You gotta chew your food. Well, small bites. Chew your food well. Mm-Hmm. , the stomach, the pancreas, the gallbladder, the intestines all need to do some manner of squeezing. They have to Mm-Hmm. . There has to be acid there. I don't know when the acid got a bad or out. So few people need an antacid. Um, yes. - That the name antacid anti-acid confuses people. 'cause they think they don't have enough acid in their stomach. But it's the opposite. - Yeah. So an antacid stop, they have too. - People think they have, sorry, they think they have too much acid. I mean, but it's the opposite. - Correct. But even doctors will think that. Right? So the thing is, the the bad guy, when it comes to esophageal burning, stomach burning is actually coming from bile, believe it or not. Mm-Hmm. . That's the one that causes cancer. That's the one that causes upset. Your, the acid in your stomach. And again, understanding that God made us beautifully and perfectly. It has to be there. The stomach is designed for acid. Why are we turning that off? You can't digest your food without acid. So, but acid does burn. So if you've got a digestive component sort of in the mid intestinal tract, you'll wind up struggling in the stomach esophagus as reflux. And in the colon either as diarrhea and constipation. It just is, it's just plumbing. This is just physics and plumbing. Mm-Hmm. , um, acid burns. You take the add acid, the burning goes away. But guess what? The damage continues. And a stomach without acid in it, you now, you can't absorb all your vitamins. You're not breaking down your food. You're more at risk for gastric cancer. And then more importantly, you're encouraging a condition called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Where bacteria don't like this acid, they stay away. There's only one or two types of bacteria that can live in the acid. And so that's how your body likes it. The more diverse your upper intestinal microbiome gets, the worse you're gonna feel. You don't want that. The upper intestinal tract needs to be kind of limited. When we say microbiome diversity, we're talking about the lower half of the intestinal tract. The more the diverse crowd who wants your food realizes there is no acid, they're gonna naturally get closer to the faster to the fun. They're no different than people. They want the shortcut and they wanna be the first at the trough. And those bacteria are not kind when they make, when they eat your food because you didn't digest it. They're making methane and all kinds of things which cause belly pain. And, and that causes reflux and constipation and diarrhea. So that process can really be unwound if you promote a healthy amount of acid in the stomach coordinated with digestive enzymes. And so that churn and burn process has to occur for you to break down your food. So the third part is breaking down your food. So our product has digestive bitters in it that coordinate the stomach and the bile of the pancreas. And then it has digestive enzymes in it, including cellulase, which will help you digest plant material that way you can, he the advice of doing diversity of the plants. Um, and then, so then you want to have an anti-inflammatory component to help support the lining of your intestinal tract. So we got anti-inflammatories in there as far as herbal supplements and some, um, cystine glutathione precursors. And, um, and then some of the herbals will help offset constipation. And then the probiotic blend that we have is made specifically to survive stomach acid and it contains for women's health. And since I'm talking to you, and I'm assuming you have a high women category. Yes. I'm assuming because Oh, you're correct. Yeah. Well, the name of your podcast, it tipped me. Um, but women's health, women who lack lactobacillus tend to have dysfunction, vaginal dysfunction, uterine dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome. And so there are three lactobacillus in there that are critical for female health. And it helps your thyroid, your estrogen levels, um, the reproductive organs, et cetera. And that's the lactobacillus re eye rosis and acid dophilus. Those three have been shown to help with IBS. But as it turns out, help normalize your thyroid, help normalize your estrogen if you have PMS or polycystic ovarian disease. Okay. So the, that probiotic's incredibly important. And then we have a spore forming bacillus in there, which will help kind of chase away the bad guys. Right? So you wanna repel the bad bacteria that way. That upper intestinal tract has its limited population that likes an acidic environment the way it was intended. And if you can get that, that stomach to kind of early, small bowel in that sweet spot pH, then it tends to take away a lot, a lot of the, the, the stomach upset challenges that people have. And then finally, you know, you got, if all that's working properly, you'll poop properly. And if that's happening, then you wind up increasing your microbiome diversity. So the more that system works and the fecal stream kind of is going at a normal clip, you know, the, the better off you're going to be. Microbiome diversity. And since microbiome diversity prevents disease because it prevents zonulin, which is the source of all disease, you can see where I'm going here. Right? Yeah. So that's the whole point of that. It's a comprehensive thing. And people will take somewhere between two and six a day, depending on their challenges. And, um, if you don't have gut upset, two a day is probably okay with you before a meal. And if you get bloating after every meal, take one or two before every meal. 'cause the digestive enzymes will help you. You're probably lacking in acid and digestive enzymes if that's the case. - That's what I was gonna ask you, but I think now I know it's a, a capsule. - Capsule. Yeah. Yeah. - So you mentioned lactose, uh, lacto - Ma Yes. . So that's what you, I mean, there's a lot of yogurts. I make my own yogurt, I'll be honest. And I have a How, how do you make your yogurt? Um, well see now, now that I'm promoting this product, I'm going to have to do both. But the yogurt that I had been making until July 8th mm-Hmm. , um, is made with grass fed organic full fat milk. I'll even add a little cream to it so I can get a higher percentage fat. Because fat is important to your microbiome, the microbiome will turn that fat into butyrate. Okay? Mm-Hmm. and milk proteins are inflammatory to the intestinal tract. So you really only want to consume a fermented version of cow's milk. Okay. So kepper or, or yogurt. So a cottage cheese if it's cultured. Um, and some cheeses Okay. Depending on how they make it. Alright. You can buy cultures that are almost specifically to your desires. But rer, I ram nosis and acidophilus for women's health are important. Um, for a long time before I started this journey, I was on thyroid hormone, you know, and it wasn't until, honestly, it wasn't until I got an autoimmune on, I'm not gonna say out loud why I got it, because that will ban you from wherever you post this video . But I think you probably can guess. Um, but I got an autoimmune complication as a result of a medication I was mandated to take How we'll say that. And so I kind of went down the deep dive on holistic medicine on naturopathic things. None of my medical doctors were willing to even entertain the timing of my disease as being related to the thing they made me take. Yeah. Like, they wouldn't even entertain it. Not possible. Of course, they're all wrong now, right. We're proving that. But, but anyway, so fine us the doctor healed thyself. I went on a mission. Yeah. I, I'm a microbiologist my mother. I grew up with my mother making yogurt. Mm-Hmm. and kind of did some deep dive of reading. And I thought, okay, that I need to find cultures. Mm-Hmm. that for fact have those bacteria in them. And I make it fresh myself. It is delicious. And, um, it's easy to do. - Yeah. Well, I'm on a mission myself, and I have, I don't have the science background or medical degrees, but I do feel that, uh, the medical field did fail me on my endometriosis. I was misdiagnosed for years. And because it was in my rectum area, I was at my gastrologist monthly. Like I had my first colonoscopy in my early twenties. - God bless you. - Uh, they, I was misdiagnosed of having, I had IBS constipation, uh, I had colitis. Uh, they at one point said I had Crohn's disease. - Interesting. - And, uh, then they put me on, I believe I was on a medication called Ness - Es - Yes. I was on that for quite a while. And then finally when I was, you know, trying to have a family, wasn't able to, and it was too late for me. And I found an amazing doctor Naza, who specializes in endometriosis, and he's outta Stanford all word of mouth as well. He's written tons of books about endometriosis. And he saved me. He was able to do the surgery. And now I've been on this whole new path to mission. - A journey. - Yes. I'm on a journey . I want to help people with constipation. Well, well, - Look, I'll tell you. So that journey though is gonna serve so many people, which is why you were given the struggle in the first place. Right? So struggle is real, but it's for purpose. Um, in constipation, one thing I've found in my practice, woefully underdiagnosed, even by other, uh, colorectal surgeons, is a particular form of pelvic floor dysfunction called internal rectal prolapse. Mm-Hmm. . And it's shocking how many people have that. Not everyone needs surgery for that, but if you're doing all the holistic stuff and the physical therapy and you're still struggling, that might be your issue. Mm-Hmm. . And I don't like people on things like Lin Linzess or daily laxatives. Magnesium is fantastic, but some of these other laxatives are stimulants. If you take 'em for more than five days, you'll paralyze your colon. Now you're really in a heap of trouble. So it's like you really are in a bind. And this is, it can be an anatomical problem. Um, and it may be one of the things that got fixed along with your endometrioma, to be honest with you, because the repair for that condition operates pretty much in that same plane between rectum and vagina. But then we add a little step, we get behind the rectum and lift up. But the where it starts is in that plain rectum and vagina, you'll get a little pocket that starts to block you, and then over many, many, many years because everyone says, you're constipated. I could care less. Just go about your way . That's kind of how doctors treat you. Yeah. Um, you can damage things, you can become incontinent as a result of all that. So, Mm-Hmm. , my mission is to never let someone my age experience incontinence because we missed it. That's just doesn't seem right. And if you'd have a conversation with people, you wouldn't miss it. Yeah. So that's, so we're kind of on similar missions, I would have to admit. - I love that. I love that. That's why I love following you . So as we're coming to close, I mean, I could go on and on and on, um, , but - I'm very verbal. I apologize for taking your time. - Oh, don't apologize. I've loved every second of it. I wanna continue . My whole point about lacto, uh, bacillus is, is that in sourdough bread - It can be because it's naturally occurring. - Yeah. - But when you take, and I get the sourdough bread question a lot. If you're, if you're like, okay, look, sourdough is fermented. There's not as much gluten and sourdough. And that is a true statement. If you're the one who made it, if you buy it at the store, they're adding acid to regular bread to make it taste sourdough. So you have to be cautious how things are made. Okay. Um, bacteria and yeast are floating around the air. Always. It's normal. Mm-Hmm. think back to 4,000 years ago, they were making, you know, honey based mead, for lack of better words, they were making wine, they were making bread. They, they didn't go to the store and have fleischmann's and port. I mean, they left it open to air. And this is how you make sauerkraut. This is how you make, um, kombucha tea. Mm-Hmm. It's how you make fermented rice and it's how you make sourdough. And it used to be how you make yogurt. - Yeah. - You can't control what's in there. So you do wanna start as sterile as humanly possible with all of those things. You don't wanna have any metal involved when you're fermenting something because metal ions will kill bacteria. You'll get all the wrong types of bacteria. Yeast don't like metal. So, so, and you want a little bit of yeast in there. Um, so if you'll get glass, ceramic, um, wood, those are usually the things that people will ferment in. Boil something, get it sterile as to milk. You pasteurize it. Modern milk straight outta the carton has already been pasteurized. You don't need to repeat that stuff. Um, but don't drink outta the carton and then make your yogurt. Right. Gotta be, you wanna keep it as clean as humanly possible. That way the natural bacteria in the air are settling into your food. Food. We need that. We don't need all surfaces covered with, um, antimicrobials. That's another problem we're having because that, I'm telling you, you're ingesting some of this antimicrobial and killing a microbiome. Wow. So you do want fermented food. So yogurt is good, sourdough is good, but there is gluten still in it, even though you've made it. Um, just beware. And a kombucha sauerkraut the water in a sauerkraut. There's a microbiologist who did a great lecture on that. And, and his lab did a study unofficially just out of their own interest. 'cause their microbiologists is what we do for a living. Mm-Hmm. . And they took all known prebiotics. Yeah. The probiotics that you can commercially buy. And, and they were like, look, if you are willing to make sauerkraut and you don't have to eat the sauerkraut, you just wanna drink a couple of teaspoons of the liquid every day and then just put a little bit more water in it and keep a perpetual culture. Yeah. And, but most people aren't brave enough to do that. 'cause like, is this gonna kill? We're trained to think it's gonna kill you 'cause there's bacteria in it, you know? So that's thus the need for an encapsulated probiotic. Thus it's in our Z seven - Z seven. Yes. Yeah. - But if you're brave and you want to try, if you're feeling very homestead, feel free, feel free to do that. - Well, I eat kimchi every single day. Yeah, - There you go. - Just sauerkraut. Yeah. - It's sauerkraut. It would very spicy . Now it's, here's a hack. And this is what I also do with my yogurt. If I don't, if I've run out of my own cultures Mm-Hmm. . But there's a yogurt that I like, like let's say I like, we like Greek yogurt. We will buy Greek yogurt, organic Greek yogurt from the store, or Bavarian. I love Bavarian yogurt. That's how I was raised. Mm-Hmm. . There are two different styles of yogurt. Go to the store, get some of that, get a huge heaping tablespoon of that yogurt and you put it in milk and heat it, you'll have the exact same yogurt at home. Wow. But it didn't cost you $6, cost you one pint of milk. Um, so you can't, and you can do the same with sauerkraut. If you have a a favorite deli sauerkraut, buy some, throw some in with some shredded cabbage and see if you can't create your own batch of the exact same sauerkraut. Now they probably put salt and some spices like, you know, kimchis got a lot of spices in it, so I'm sure you've gotta do other stuff than just ferment it. But you can make your own. And it's fun. Teach the kids how to do it. I, my kids grew up doing that stuff. So , - I'm going to do that. You have shared such a wealth of information. I'm so grateful for you. So thank you, thank you, thank you. - My pleasure. Hopefully I didn't talk too much, I apologize. - No, no. I, I love hearing you speak, so thank you. - Anytime. It was fun. - Yeah. You're, you're changing, uh, you're changing people's lives and please continue with the mission, because that's what I am on as well to help people and their gut. Perfect. - Yes. Perfect. We need a collaborative effort of, of people. So it's all about the, it's all about the mission. - I mean, I've tried every laxative out there in the world because I was on it for so long and it was horrible. Sure. And that's why I came up with my own product. Travely. It's not a probiotic or a prebiotic, it's strictly just vitamins and minerals. Right. - And the magnesium is, is the, the active ingredient. So that's, and, and honestly, people are devoid of magnesium. Um, you know, the problem is if if you've got diarrhea and you take a magnesium, you may suffer some intestinal distress . So you do have to be cautious. But yeah. People with constipation benefit from magnesium. Absolutely. And when you travel, that's the number one reason people get constipated. - Yeah. Well I also believe that the, I always think that, well, all the ingredients combined work really help or helpful for, or just specifically when you're traveling, right, ? - Well, absolutely. And that's, that's when people complain. That's the number one time is the travel. So kudos to the product because I think that's, you got the right niche there. - Perfect. Thank you. And so, um, I seven launches July, - July 8th. So if you've got upper GI distress and you've tried everything you don't know what to do, feel free. We're gonna combine a lot of education and I'm the spokesperson for that. So I'm, I'm already starting to bank the educational videos in a little video vault. So people who join our community for XI F seven will have access to sort of GI education. Um, very similar to, I have an online program also that, um, is available on my website. So my website's dr anna toker.com, you can find information on that or you can just wa I give most of that same information I give eventually on the Instagram doesn't cost you anything, um, or ultimately in the ZY seven group. So. - Amazing. Well, I, you'll find me - . - I look forward to, uh, purchasing some zy seven. It sounds amazing. I love all the enzymes and all the, - I Yes. We'd love your feedback too. - Yeah, I love that. I - Could see a world taking Zy seven and travels on vacation. I can see it. - Yes. . - Absolutely. See it. Dive seven for your daily use when you head for vacation. There you go. It's perfect. - Yay. Well, thank you for sharing your knowledge. And that's it for this episode. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more gutsy babe content. Until next time. Move with love and ease. - Is it hard to go when you are on the go? Well, you're not alone travelers. Constipation affects millions daily. Don't let irregularity ruin your next trip. Try travels, especially formulated to keep you going on your next vacation or business trip. Unlike common over the counter therapies for constipation, travel ease is all natural. Doesn't produce cramping and won't dehydrate. You wanna find out more? Go to easy natural health.com. That's EEZE natural health.com. Now also [email protected].