Heal your microbiome to reverse disease with Dr. Steven Gundry

Heal your microbiome to reverse disease with Dr. Steven Gundry

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Summary

In episode 690 of the 40+ Fitness Podcast, host Coach Allan brings back Dr. Steven Gundry to discuss his book “The Gut Brain Paradox: Improve Your Mood, Clear Brain Fog, and Reverse Disease by Healing Your Microbiome.” Dr. Gundry is the director of the International Heart and Lung Institute in Palm Springs, California, and the founder and director of the Center for Restorative Medicine in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. A former professor and chairman of cardiothoracic surgery at Loma Linda University, he shifted his focus to curing modern diseases through dietary changes and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles.

The conversation explores what Gundry calls the “holobiome” – the full community of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live not just in the gut but virtually everywhere the body communicates with the outside world. He explains that these single-cell organisms have a form of intelligence, communicate with the brain via the vagus nerve, and even influence our metabolism, hunger, and food choices. He describes how modern life has decimated this once-diverse ecosystem, producing dysbiosis and leaky gut, and likens the damage to a form of internal climate change.

Gundry emphasizes that healing the microbiome is a slow process, comparing it to regrowing a burned forest, and that sealing a leaky gut typically takes nine months to a year. He outlines a base program built on his Plant Paradox approach and a deeper “chicken and the sea” program for those who cannot tolerate plant and certain animal foods, and closes with practical wellness strategies.

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Key Takeaways

  • Gundry prefers the term “holobiome” over “microbiome” because bacteria, viruses, and fungi live nearly everywhere the body meets the outside world, including women’s breast ducts and men’s prostates, not just the gut.
  • Single-cell organisms behave with a kind of intelligence: they can sense their surroundings, count nearby organisms, distinguish friend from foe, and manipulate other organisms.
  • About 80% of the immune system lines the wall of the gut, and a diverse, balanced set of bacteria trains white blood cells to tell good guys from bad; when diversity collapses, the immune system attacks haphazardly, driving inflammation and neuroinflammation.
  • Gut bacteria influence eating behavior – obesogenic bacteria favor simple carbohydrates and saturated fats and can send signals to the brain to seek those foods, while lean bacteria need complex carbohydrates; in animal experiments, transplanting stool from obese to skinny animals makes them obese and vice versa.
  • Leaky gut (intestinal permeability) can be measured and quantified through blood and stool tests, work pioneered by pediatric gastroenterologist Alessio Fasano; Gundry says virtually 100% of his patients show markers for it, and sealing it typically takes nine months to a year, with progress checked every three months.
  • Restoring the microbiome requires an “assembly line” of bacteria – one species must produce substances the next needs – so beneficial microbes like Akkermansia muciniphila cannot make butyrate and other postbiotics unless earlier steps are supplied.
  • The deeper “chicken and the sea” program is a version of a carnivore diet using pastured poultry, wild-caught fish, and shellfish; Gundry says beef, lamb, pork, and milk contain a sugar molecule (Neu5Gc) that damages the gut wall, blood-brain barrier, and brain, while poultry, fish, and shellfish carry Neu5Ac instead, and switching carnivore-diet patients to poultry and seafood clears their inflammation markers.
  • For staying well, Gundry recommends taking more vitamin D3 (citing UC San Diego research suggesting the average American take about 9,600 IU per day and noting he has never seen toxicity at 40,000 IU/day), getting a dog to bring beneficial soil organisms into the home, and investing effort in caring for the body as the only “house” we get.

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Episode Notes

Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 690
Published: 2025-04-15
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): Dr. Steven Gundry, the director of the International Heart and Lung Institute in Palm Springs, California and the founder and director of the Center for Restorative Medicine in Palm Springs in Santa Barbara, The Gut-Brain Paradox
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)