Latest / FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast / Tired of Feeling Bloated and Uncomfortable? Gut Health Expert Atavia Minoudis Has the Answer

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Tired of Feeling Bloated and Uncomfortable? Gut Health Expert Atavia Minoudis Has the Answer · FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast

• 2:30
  Unknown: Hi, hi, Atavia, hi, morning. How are you?
• 2:33
  Unknown: I'm good. How are you?
• 2:35
  Unknown: Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. Nice to see you. So I'm a little bit late.
• 2:38
  Turo Virta: No worries, no worries. I'm excited to learn from you. And just before I start recording, are you okay to keep it later on, between 45 to 60 minutes, so depending how conversation goes and and that is okay for you?
• 3:04
  Unknown: Yeah, I've blocked out an hour, so that's fine. Yeah,
• 3:07
  Turo Virta: perfect. So started with recording, and which I feel like that. Usually, if we chat some normal stuff, we miss, always, so good part of conversation. So before going that everything about your background and everything, I start recording. And then let's move forward. Sure you have you have any any questions or anything you want to mention,
• 3:35
  Unknown: not really, no, just go for it.
• 3:38
  Turo Virta: Yeah, just how to pronounce. Is it your name?
• 3:42
  Unknown: Oh, yeah, Atavia.
• 3:42
  Unknown: Atavia, okay, yeah.
• 3:46
  Turo Virta: And last name is Min Minoudis. Minoudis, yeah, Minori, just to get it, I hope I'm that I've made
• 4:06
  Unknown: so I live in England, but my dad is Greek, so that I'm half Greek, which is why I have that name.
• 4:12
  Turo Virta: Okay, okay, got it, got it perfect. So then let's get started with recording, and let's do this. Hi and welcome to fit me. Turo fitness podcast, today's episode, I'm very, very excited to learn from IBS, and my guest today is Atavia Minoudis. And welcome to so Atavia. And before we get started, tell a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you live, and what you are doing.
• 4:43
  Turo Virta: Yeah,
• 4:45
  Unknown: sure. So I'm Atavia.
• 4:45
  Unknown: I'm a gut specialist. I work with people with IBS and gut health problems. After struggling with that for many years myself and then basically learning nutritional therapy and getting qualified in that, I specialize in gut health. So I live in England, in northern England, and I see people I've worked with people all over the world, and helping them to understand IBS and their gut health and how to basically overcome symptoms. And have my own podcast where I talk specifically about that, trying to de stigmatize IBS and gut health, because a lot of people don't like to talk about that, trying to make it, you know, normalized and, yeah, just helping people to overcome the symptoms.
• 5:26
  Turo Virta: Yeah, that's so interesting. Like, obviously, I have heard about it and but I don't know exactly what it how, what it is like in that general, what you find from Google, but, but what? What is someone who is thinking that they might have IBS. What are what kind of symptoms, and what is it? What it is all about? Great
• 5:53
  Unknown: question. I think it's one of those things where you can't give a straight answer, because IBS is it's not, technically, it's not like a disease where you have certain symptoms that tell you've got an umbrella term. So everyone with IBS will experience it slightly differently. So the main symptoms to look out for are things like, you know, irregular stool habits, difficulty passing stools, maybe having bloating or flatulence, having loose stools, or it can be having constipation, but anything that I say to people, if you're, if you're noticing that your gut and your digestive process is having an impact on your life, and you're aware of it, that's a sign that something's not right, because you shouldn't really be going about your day to day life feeling any kind of discomfort or irregularity with your gut and with your, you know, stool habits. So yeah, the main ones to look out for are things like, you know, classic bloating, discomfort in your gut, pain in your pain in your gut, and the regular stool habits.
• 6:54
  Turo Virta: And you said you had it yourself. How you became aware of it?
• 6:59
  Unknown: I became aware of it when I was in my early 20s. And I always had, I always say to people that you have, like a genetic weak spot, so there'll be an area of your health where that occasions or illness, there'll be an area of your health that tends to go up first. So some people, it's like weak joints or something like that. For me, it was, was my gut. And a lot of people, it's their gut health.
• 7:26
  Unknown: And in my 20s, I really became aware of it, because I'd had lots of stomach bugs when I was growing up, and I was always, you know, had sickness like that. But in my 20s, I had very stressful experiences, and then I was at uni, and I was drinking too much, I was eating really poorly, and I was trying to gain weight. So I was trying to, I've always been very slim, and I was trying to put on muscle and put on weight, and I basically just started drinking like, 3000 calorie protein shakes a day, which had, you know, which had lactose in them, and I triggered the lactose intolerance. And then I just damaged my gut so much that, yeah, it was just a daily occurrence for me. So it got to a point where my symptoms were so significant, where I felt like my stomach was on fire and my intestines were on fire, and felt like I was like pregnant most of the time. So yeah, that's how I became fully aware, to the point I couldn't ignore it anymore. And
• 8:24
  Turo Virta: what is, what is the healing process? How how it looks now and and what, what did you do to release those or leave those symptoms?
• 8:35
  Unknown: So first thing I did was look at my food intolerances and sensitivity. So which foods were triggering symptoms and people's journey will look very different and very unique to them. So somebody else with IBS, their journey will look quite different to mine, because there are several factors at play in IBS, but they're all to different levels for each person. So the first thing I did was look at removing any food intolerances. So for me, it was gluten and lactose, which, as someone who's half Greek, is like hell on earth, because when you go to Greece or you eat, you know breads and you know, feta and things like that, but I had to remove those and learn how to enjoy food and be able to eat well without eating those foods.
• 9:14
  Unknown: And then looked at my own so, you know, using probiotics and looking at what was going on inside my gut, the bacterial level in my gut, because I had lots of antibiotics when I was younger and had illnesses, different strains of bacteria had died off, so I wasn't able to process foods and stuff. So those were the two main things that I did to, you know, support my gut to heal.
• 9:37
  Turo Virta: Interesting. This is because this, I feel like there's so many people like, who are suffering, or what is your experience? Is there so many people who are suffering about this IBS without actually even noticing it?
• 9:52
  Unknown: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, like, I say, I don't know what it's like in Italy, but in England, we don't really talk about our guts or our still habits that often, but as soon as you know, sometimes I go to a party and people say, Oh, what do you do for a living? And I tell them, and then everyone starts saying, like, oh, I have issues with my gut, but they don't. They never talk about it.
• 10:08
  Unknown: It's just because they've never spoken to anyone who's a gut specialist. But I would say most people health, and a lot of them also have IBS, so it does seem to be a lot more common than it was before. I think there's loads of different reasons for that. You know, high stress levels, poor quality food. Food isn't organic. We've got lots of pesticides in it. It's damaging our gut microbiome. So, yeah, it's super common, and to the point where people don't realize that what they're experiencing isn't isn't normal, because for them, it's normal. You know, for you, you just think it's the norm. But actually, that's not how your thoughts should be functioning.
• 10:49
  Turo Virta: And what is there then, if somebody have them, like, obviously, you have some kind of medications, you go to see Doctor, how the process is going. If you, if you think that you might have IPs, or you want to make sure that to make some kind of testing for it or how the project is working.
• 11:13
  Unknown: Yeah. So over here it's if you go to your doctor with IBS generally.
• 11:23
  Unknown: So the most common thing that happens with people is they'll maybe be recommended peppermint capsules, because peppermint can help reduce bloating, but it's not really looking at the causative factor. So generally, people have experience of going to their doctor having some tests where they'll test for any like disease state, and if you don't have a disease, so you don't have something like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, the doctor will say, well, there's nothing that we can find wrong with you because you don't have a disease. So then people will just be left with their symptoms and, you know, they'll just be told you just have to live with it, not realizing that doctors don't specialize in that area. IBS can be something that's more a holistic health practitioner.
• 12:01
  Unknown: You know, we need to do more in depth testing. We don't just look for three certain things.
• 12:04
  Unknown: We look for the whole gut microbiome. So if someone works with a holistic health practitioner, we'll look at doing a four step process of identifying your food intolerances and removing those to help your gut heal, looking at your gut microbiome, what needs to you know, what needs to be repopulated, is there an overgrowth or something, and then reducing inflammation in the gut as well and supporting stress, because stress is such a huge triggering factor for IBS and a lot of people.
• 12:35
  Turo Virta: And what are, then like, kind of long term risks, like with all kind of these treatments, what you might be at least there's some long term risks. What patients should be aware of
• 12:51
  Unknown: with I guess I see a lot of people with acid reflux, and something that they get put on is like acid reducing tablets like landsoprazole, and that can be, you know, they're put on those by doctors generally, to try and reduce the acid. A lot of people with acid reflux, they don't have high acid, they have low acid, stomach acid. So it's actually counter intuitive putting them on those but there are long term risks with that, because it basically stops you from absorbing nutrients that you need, and especially for women, as we get older, it can lead to, you know, loss of and lead to things like fractures.
• 13:27
  Unknown: It can lead to lack of magnesium, which, especially if you're into fitness, you need lots of magnesium, because you burn through that really quickly, and you need it for relaxation and energy production. So they do come with, you know, potential, long, long term damaging benefit. You know, damages with IBS itself, I would say it there's, it's not specifically like, if you don't treat your IBS, then this specific thing's going to happen. But the longer that you have it, it can get worse. And I have seen people, you know, you start off with one or two symptoms, and you can live with it. It's not unbearable, but the more you ignore it, the more damage that happens to your gut and you're not addressing it.
• 14:03
  Unknown: So, you know, you can end up with quite you know, serious symptoms.
• 14:08
  Turo Virta: What about is there some like, prescribed medication? What you can get or or,
• 14:18
  Unknown: yeah, so if you go to a doctor, they'll generally look at your symptoms. So they might look at if you've got to prevent that, or if you've got the opposite, and you've got constipation, they might put you on something that helps you to pass towards like a laxative.
• 14:35
  Unknown: What that does is it actually makes your gut lazy. So your gut, and I've worked with people who have been on those for years and years, and then when they come off them, their gut literally can't remember how to do its own job. So if you work with a specific gut health specialist like myself, we'll look at what your gut needs to bring it back into balance so that it can work again on its own, so it doesn't need long term medication, so that you can basically manage it without having to rely on pills for the rest of your
• 15:07
  Turo Virta: life. Yeah. And what? What are those? What kind of solutions? Except that the long term mitigation there is for people, yeah.
• 15:17
  Unknown: So it would be looking at the four, the four factors that I address in clinics. So the first one is looking at food intolerances, so identifying anything that could be triggering your symptoms, because the spent five years with chronic bloating, and then, you know, flatulence and irregular stool habits, and that's made them really sluggish and really fatigued. It's had such a big impact on them. And then it can be as simple as, there's one food dollar into and we remove that, and most of the symptoms go because it was just they were eating that intolerance food, yeah. So it can be, you know, those are people who are the lucky ones, because then you just remove that food, and then you can kind of do a bit of gut work and get on with your life.
• 16:00
  Unknown: Other people, it's a bit more complex, and there are a few more things you need to address, but the first thing you do is look at food intolerances and sensitivities. Then you look at rebalancing the gut microbiome.
• 16:09
  Unknown: So for example, if someone's had lots of antibiotics in their childhood, or they've had recurring tonsillitis, antibiotics kill off a bunch of different bacteria, not just the one they need to so we'd want to look at repopulating the gut microbiome with bacteria that's needed to keep things regular, and then looking at, you know, reducing stress levels Going to bed, because if you eat before bedtime, all that food is just sitting sat in your gut, and you don't have the ability for your gut to heal itself and to kind of clear itself out whilst you're sleeping. And things like overeating as well, people eat way beyond the 100% full mark. So something I work with, people in clinic who experience bloating will look at eating to 80% full, because if you eat when you're 80% full, so it's not 100% you're giving your gut a little bit of leeway to you're not overburdening it. And when your gut struggling it, you know it benefits from that.
• 17:19
  Unknown: Yeah,
• 17:22
  Turo Virta: you mentioned about the stress and mindset. Why? Why you? Why do you believe that mindset plays kind of a critical role in managing that IPS symptoms?
• 17:37
  Unknown: Mindset is huge because, because it plays into stress. So stress is one of the biggest triggers I see.
• 17:49
  Unknown: You have so many nerve endings in your gut, stress can literally make those nerve endings more sensitive, and it can lower your pain threshold, and it can increase your gut sensitivity to the point where two people can have a normal level of gas in their gut, but the person with IBS, because they're so sensitive because the stress has triggered their gut so much that level of gas feels like it's really significant and can cause like, pain and discomfort, and it's disproportionate to the level of gas that you have. It should just be a normal level. You shouldn't feel it because stress just kind of like lights up your gut to make it in a stress state. So anything that's going on there can feel so much more intense, and when you're, I mean, with any long term health condition, but especially IBS, if you're feeling stressed and you're not addressing your mindset, that's just going to make your symptoms worse, because it's going to trigger it. So something I work with clients is looking at having a curiosity mindset, rather than going into stress state and frustration and overwhelm, looking at, I let me think, see if I can identify the trigger, because that makes your mindset more neutral. You go away from stress and overwhelm into curiosity, which is going to help you to see more clearly and also to reduce your stress levels. Yeah,
• 19:12
  Turo Virta: is there any other like, of course, this is very, very interesting. Is there some, any some other strategies except this, like shifting that mindset out of curiosity, what have helped your patients to shift mindset and help, obviously, with the better management of their IPs.
• 19:35
  Unknown: Yeah, for sure, something called radical acceptance is something I work with people and they find really useful. So radical acceptance is just is what it says it is. So you're radically accepting the reality of your situation to the point where you're you're not kind of wishing you weren't where you were. You're experiencing these really bad symptoms, and I'm struggling a lot with them, but that doesn't mean you're accepting that it's always going to be that way. It just means that you can work with yourself where you're actually at. So instead of wishing you were better and trying to live life as if you were better, and then getting symptoms, you're accepting, no, I'm struggling. And therefore, what do I need to do to start the healing journey? You know, it's taking yourself out of denial, and that means that you can work with your gut, because so many people with any health condition, I suppose, but definitely. IBS, you feel like your gut is trying to punish you, or like it's working against you. And you become, you know, you end up essentially fighting with your own body, but your guts trying to tell you something. It's not trying to ruin your life. It's just trying to tell you that something is wrong and it wants you to listen to it. And the more you try and, you know, deny it. It will just get worse.
• 20:48
  Turo Virta: I feel like this is something what is, not only IBS, but in overall, like that kind of, listen your body, like what is actually goes often, like your body is very good at telling you and if there is something not right, but it says that I have a feeling that so many people are not anymore understanding or learning to listen like, of course, I think we all have went through phases where, where you know, you think something, but you kind of deny it, and then you recognize, like later In life, like you get older, you understand, okay. Now this happened before, and now would be maybe smarter to try some other kind of mindset or or different tricks, and not just push yourself or go through that pain or whatever, causing the like discomfort,
• 21:46
  Unknown: definitely, because if you don't listen to your body, is that phrase of, if you don't listen to your body, when, when it whispers, you'll hear it when it shouts, because it will, it won't, it won't go away. And I think definitely, as you get older, and you start to realize when you're younger, like when me, I just watch for granted, and I just didn't, you know, I didn't really think I you know, you feel invincible, yeah. And then as you you get older, and you get into your 30s and beyond, you're like, oh, I need to really take care of myself. And your body doesn't let you get away with what you used to get away with. And a lot of people don't understand that that change happens. And actually you need to move into working with your body and using it as a tool to understand what's going on, rather than just wishing, you know, feeling like we should just feel well. And when we're not well, we get annoyed at this. Yeah, like you say, it's getting in touch with yourself, yeah.
• 22:36
  Turo Virta: And then often, what I see, and here is, like, something like that. It's just in, you know, you are so, so many people are, are, like, just thinking that it's, it's the way how it is when you are getting older, and, you know, I now, I have just more pain and necklace and whatever, and not understanding like that. There is actually so many, usually, there is a cause and symptom
• 22:59
  Unknown: to go to that,
• 23:07
  Turo Virta: that where is everything starting? Like, like, in my area of where I specialize is like that having pain. Like, if you have a lower back pain, like most people still think that you know you have lifted something heavy, or it's coming from cold. Of course, it could be the reason too. But especially if it's kind of chronicle pain, it's most often than not, it's the reason is somewhere else like that it might be like for back pain. It could be the reason. Like, by far the most common reasons are lacking mobility of your hips, or or, or there is something wrong with your shoes. Could be or other leg is longer, or there's so many possible reasons, or you're you are sedentary, you don't do kind of movements like those are kind of things what some people might get, but they really don't go to they rather choose that easy to go to see some therapist, getting some massage, getting relief of that pain, but you never go to that kind of route.
• 24:14
  Turo Virta: What is actually causing it that and preventing it that it won't happen or it happens less in the future?
• 24:21
  Unknown: Yeah, that's such a good point, and I think it plays into how we tend to see the body in different parts, and that's because the medical model, I think, like it does literally see the body in different parts, like, you know, it's not just it lower back on its own. Like you say, lower back is connected to hips, and then how you know your your your stance, and how you walk, and all that kind of stuff. And I think that's something that we forget to do, is look at the body as a whole.
• 24:46
  Unknown: And that's why I see people, when I talk to them about stress, they just think, How can stress, this weird phrase, stress, like, what an emotion, how can that have such a big impact on my gut? But actually, when you talk about the mechanisms around stress and how it impacts, it makes total sense, but we just see it as very, you know, singular, rather than looking at about you know, as you age and you start to experience new symptoms, I say to people in clinic, you know, however old you are now, that's how many years your body has experienced ill health, stress, medications, poor diet, poor movement. So everything you've done up until now has led to led you to this point. You're an accumulation of your lifestyle up until this point. And when you phrase it like that, people think, Oh, God, that's true. Like, I've lived this whole life of just being stressed and drinking too much and doing all this kind of stuff. So your body has, you know, it's a stacking factor to the point where it's triggered a symptom, or lower back pain, or, you know, whatever it is that it's manifesting as, yeah,
• 25:52
  Turo Virta: and I feel like that it's got stress itself. It's kind of so popular work nowadays. And I don't, I don't, I know very few people who never have a stress or have very low stress. It's almost like old people that you know you are, you have a lot of stress, or at least lot of things you do be accomplishing you know. You have a professional stress, you have family stress, you have maybe stress with yourself, or things what you know you should be doing. And I feel like that, it's, it's all about, like that.
• 26:27
  Turo Virta: It's not stress, stress itself.
• 26:32
  Turo Virta: It's not a bad thing. Like, it's just to often for me, it's, it's how you are managing. Like, of course, if you, if you try to get that you know you have a stress then you bring alcohol or, or take some drugs or or use it, kind of things, what may be helping a short term to relieve that stress, but you know that in the long term, they do actually more harm than good, and it's, it's just a ways to find something like it's because it's, it's otherwise, it's if you don't find the base what long term solutions, what helps you to reduce stress, improve your mental health? It's going to be you never get out of that.
• 27:17
  Turo Virta: Feel stressed. Then you you go, there is a weekend coming, you drink, then you have some other problems coming from that. And even we are often, I feel like we are so good to talk ourselves out of it, or out of those habits, what we have had for longer. And I feel like this is, this is, it's a huge problem, not only in fitness things and but also like in your area of special specialty, like IBS, like that, if you have a symptom, how you are going to actually or which route you choose to relieve that those symptoms and what is actually causing it 100%
• 27:59
  Unknown: and realizing that that stress that we all experience because life is stressful just day to day, we're not just Our brains aren't designed to cope with the amount of amount of information that we have for us every day. If you don't do something with that stress, something trauma and to the point where you can have one significant stressful, traumatic event that triggers your gut, so your gut actually reacts quicker to stress than your brain does. So your gut will respond a lot quicker than your brain. And then you then conditioned your gut to react to any kind of stress. So if you have a significant stressful event, and you know that triggers your gut to react. Any kind of stressing can trigger it in the future, even if it's just low level stress of being late for work or whatever it might be. But you know, to your point, your body will store and present that stress in some way. If you don't work out of your system and you don't regulate it, because there's only there's nowhere else for it to go, so it will manifest in back pain, or, you know, rashes or something like that, or IBS,
• 29:11
  Turo Virta: yeah, exactly what is like. Pretty interesting for me, what, what is, what I want to talk about is your mindset is still about a little bit about, it's also about relieving stress. But what is the difference like? Is there some physiological aspects between negative and positive mindset?
• 29:38
  Unknown: For sure. I mean, the first thing to think about with mindset is your hormonal release. So if you have positive thoughts and gratitude. I mean, I think Gratitude has been shown to speed up recovery rates, if for any illness, by something that I think it's 50% or something, because when you're thinking positive thoughts, it's not just, Oh, my mind is separate to my body. As soon as you're thinking positive thoughts, you're getting release of endorphins and feel good hormones. So things like, you know, when you are in a loving relationship, you have more oxytocin, and that can help to reduce your blood pressure, and it can help to, you know, basically, make your body more calm if you're having a stress mindset, which is why it's so important with any illness, and especially IBS, to look at your mindset. As soon as you have stress, you have levels of stress hormones like cortisol and cortisol can majorly disrupt your bio if you have 30 minutes of stress, that's enough to change the levels of bacteria in your gut, because that cortisol is a literal hormone moving around your bloodstream, ends up in your gut, and it can kill off certain bacteria that you need to keep your gut healthy. So it's not just like, you know, thinking yourself better or worse. It has a literal physiological impact on your whole body and on your gut.
• 31:00
  Turo Virta: Yeah, this is so interesting, like, you know, when you hear or you do something, something like self development courses or something, and it's all about, like, positive mindset, believing what you that it's possible and that is helping.
• 31:16
  Turo Virta: But this is such an interesting point. What you mentioned, that there is actually the cause, and like, how the physiological how it's affecting to your stress hormones, or everything. So it's not it's not only about lightest that just start to thinking positive if you are negative person, it's easier said than done. Do you have some practical tips how to shift your mindset?
• 31:53
  Unknown: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I love gratitudes, like gratitude is my favorite thing to do. And I think if you, especially if you are a negative person, or you, you tend towards negative mindset that is quite common, because our brains are hardwired to look for threats.
• 32:05
  Unknown: You know, evolutionary wise, we need to look for threats. Look for things that are negative and life is hard. Like, let's be honest, I think life can be difficult. Sometimes there are stressful things. So you automatically go to that negative mindset. So the best thing for you to do would be just little and often, don't magically, one day think you're going to wake up and be super happy, positive person. That's not realistic, but if you just start the day with writing three things you're grateful for, and genuinely feeling that gratitude, feeling that emotion, so you're creating new neural pathways in your brain. You're creating new ways for your brain to think. And the more you do that, the more it's going to become habit, and that habit will overtake, you know, the negativity. So yeah, I would say something like gratitude or mindfulness or meditation can be really good, because that helps your your vagus nerve, which is like the nerve that runs from your brain to your gut and into other parts of your body. What you want to do is activate that nerve to tell your your body to be relaxed. And a good way of activating that nerve is through meditation or deep breathing or yoga. When you're in like poses, like downward dog, it the muscles in your neck, activate the vagus nerve. And the more you do that, it's kind of like going to the gym. So say someone's like, I want to get toned up. And they go to the gym once, and they try and lift really heavy weights, and then they're like, Well, I look no different. Obviously, you know that more than I do. That doesn't work. But if you go regularly, you know a difference in a few months.
• 33:50
  Unknown: The same with your with your nerves and your mindset. If you just do five minutes of yoga or mindfulness meditation, you're strengthening that vagus nerve, so you literally tone up that nerve so it's more resistant to stress, so you can have the same stresses happening, but you're just more relaxed and calm about it, because you've toned up that nerve and you're able to manage it better. So,
• 34:15
  Turo Virta: so much sense, and it's it came to my mind, like thinking, like the time when I think, like when I talk with the people who I work with, and and often like this is a it's so related like, because obviously, most people who conduct, for example, they are very motivated, and they already like that. They think that they need to get now whole full value for their money. And when I asked that, how many workouts they want to aim for, like, of course, and they times a week, 30 minutes, and when I say that, how is that going to is that going Is that realistic? Yeah, I can do it. I can do it. But until now, I have, like, kids and working 12 hours, and then how you are going to be able to manage that without feeling guilt, because there is such a big difference or promises what you make to yourself, and if you are able to keep them, because most people when, when we talk, like, for example, setting a workout call like there is a big difference.
• 35:29
  Turo Virta: If you aim for three workouts per week and you are able to do two workouts, you are not feeling gratitude of those two workouts. Or most people don't feel that gratitude or or are happy with themselves when they get done two workouts and miss one. It's the only thing that bothers them is that one missed workout, and they don't feel happy about doing those two. And there's just, you aim for a bit less what? What you actually think that is possible, but it kind of feels almost easy, and you get done two workouts. And if, let's say that in some week, you do some extra session as a third workout, and you get three workouts in that is such a big game changer. And also, also asking, like, when, when, what I what I see, like, when you ask, ask on people like, how did your week went? Only thing what happens, or if I don't tell specifically to tell good things, it's only about negative things. What? What? Like, a 90% of people are coming like that.
• 36:37
  Turo Virta: Yeah, I should do this and this and this and these things are better, but they that is, it's so easy to kind of forgot those good things and focus only on negativity and how, which things went wrong and and forgetting, like actually looking Back and feeling at
• 37:06
  Unknown: least, yeah, 100% and that is, you know, that society we live in, I think, values productivity, and we set ourselves on realistic standards, considering we need to work, look after a household if we've got kids, look after kids, work out, eat. Well, there's so many demands on us that you then immediately feel like you failed, and to your point of, you know, over committing as well, and thinking that we can do more than we can, and all that does then is make your motivation reduce. So when I work with people in clinic, I'll say to I'll say to people, how much, how many changes do you want to make? Because I can give you three things to do this month, or I can give you 10. So what is realistic for you, and how does your mind work? Do you work better with, you know, small changes regularly that you can do and then build up. Or are you someone who just wants to get it all done and you're going to hyper focus and really change things, but realistically, of your lifestyle and how your brain works, what's going to work for you? Because you're better starting, like you say, with two workouts a week and get you this point, we're like, oh, and then you miss one day and you think, Oh, well, it's all pointless. Now, what's the point? Oh, yeah. And then it just shows your motivation.
• 38:21
  Turo Virta: Yeah, that's that very common all in or nothing, yeah. All kind of being the perfectionist that I definitely, I'm still guilty about it myself, but now getting older, learning to be kind of kind for myself too, and think that it's, it's, there is no, always, no need to be kind of perfect.
• 38:45
  Turo Virta: It's, it's a lot more valuable to be taking at least. What worked for me is, is taking it step by step, and not even aiming for being really high standard, like it's that cause that consistency that beats perfection every single time it comes to fitness or anything.
• 39:05
  Turo Virta: Because if you think that you know you can do 10 changes
• 39:11
  Unknown: for one month,
• 39:19
  Turo Virta: anything, it's rather if you look like a especially look longer period of time, and you do those One Two small changes, which basically doesn't even feel like that. You are doing some changes, and you maintain them, maybe are able to add one or two more things. If you look longer period of time, let's say three, six months, you are going to accomplish so much more than having that short period of time and getting everything done within a short period of time, yeah,
• 39:47
  Unknown: absolutely. And seeing it as a long term journey as well, and something that you're going to be consistently revisiting and tweaking and changing. And it's not just you do this and then you you do three workouts a week, and then you reach this level, and then you're done. It's something you're going to consistently do, right? And especially with something like IBS, where some people will live symptom free once we've worked together, and they won't really have to think about it too much. Other people will need to think about it regularly and manage their, you know, food intake and manage their stress, things like that.
• 40:15
  Unknown: It's learning to live differently and commit to that long term is going to have a bigger impact than just wanting to have a quick fix, like you say,
• 40:29
  Turo Virta: well, in in your practice, like when you work with with the people, when there is those different kind of symptoms and factors, what, how do you address them? And to find that, really, if you have some special, tips or or strategies.
• 40:50
  Turo Virta: What's your what? What are your favorite strategies? I know, like you mentioned it, there's no like one solution that will work for everyone, like in any kind of fitness thing. But what are some common strategies?
• 41:04
  Unknown: So it depends on what the causative factors are. So the first thing I do with everybody is a comprehensive health analysis of what's going on in your body. What have you experienced throughout your life? How are your symptoms presenting? Because that can help us identify what's going on you up to this point. So the antecedent, so for some people, it will be they were genetically predisposed to having, you know, something wrong with their gut.
• 41:31
  Unknown: Some people it will be they drank a hell of a lot of alcohol when they were younger, and they're very stressed, and that's caused issues with inflammation in their gut. If it's something like inflammation, will need to work on remedying that. So you can look at your, you know, managing your gut microbiome, but utilizing supplements that can help to reduce the inflammation in your gut, things like slippery Alma really good to help, you know, reinforce that mucosal membrane that the mucus we have over our stomach lining, to keep it supported, but it will really depend on each individual and what you know, what was the leading factors leading up to this? And then what was your trigger point. So most people will remember what their trigger point was. So for me, it was when I was drinking those protein shakes with loads of black shades and way too many calories and just, you know, try, like the classic, trying to, if I just drink all of these, I'll put on weight and then I'll be fine. Obviously, that's not the way that it was.
• 42:23
  Unknown: Yeah, I triggered from having too much lactose, then I caused gut inflammation, and then my gut microbiome was damaged. So for other people, it's, was it after antibiotics? Was it after food poisoning? So I've worked people who've had really bad food poisoning, and then we do stool tests, and we look at your you had loads of antibiotics, and that killed off a bunch of bacteria, and then you've got this pathogen that's grown in its place, and that's what's causing your symptoms. So then we look at, how do you, how do you reduce that pathogenic bacteria? You know, it's very it's very specific to the individual.
• 43:08
  Turo Virta: It's still some like, some what? What are some like, biggest misconceptions about ideas that you encounter in your practice?
• 43:19
  Unknown: The biggest misconception is that it's that it's normal, or that you just have to live with it, which is without that are not true, something that you just have to live, live your life, and that you know that is complicated because it's really hard to explain, that IBS can be simple, but but it is. It is intricate.
• 43:42
  Unknown: It's complex for each individual, but it's not something that you just have to live with. I just hear that so often that people have just lived for years with it, that this is just something, that my gut is good, my gut is just this way, or you can only, quote, unquote, cure it through this medication. Or I've had people come to me and say, My doctor said it's either surgery or nothing. That's that's not true, right? It's like, you don't have to go to such extremes to see any kind of So, yeah, that's probably the biggest misconception
• 44:17
  Turo Virta: that's interesting.
• 44:17
  Turo Virta: Would you do you have some kind of because I love to hear some stories. Do you have some kind of success stories or case studies in your practice that what, what could be, for example, situation diagnosed before, or maybe there was some use of medication And what you did to jovid And how, what situation at the moment?
• 44:50
  Unknown: Yeah, sure, let me think of one, because I've got loads that are coming to mind. I think one of the ones that stands out is when I had someone who came to me who was really highly stressed. I had two people come to me at the same time. One was really stressed, sorry. They were both really stressed, and they both had really bad stomach issues, and they both reacted completely differently, even though their symptoms were almost identical.
• 45:10
  Unknown: So one person had a really stress and anxiety, really bad bloating, really bland, like, you know, in inconsistent stool habits, just flatulence, all that kind of stuff. And we looked at food intolerances, there were two that we removed.
• 45:25
  Unknown: One was lactose, that's the most common one. The other one was gluten, same as me. And then we looked at just giving her some general microbiome support, so like a general robotics just she's said, I literally don't feel stressed anymore. My anxiety has completely gone. And the reason being is because her gut, because her gut was reacting so much it was, you know, we spoke about the vagus nerve earlier, how it's like the gut brain connection. Her gut was sort of inflamed and in in like a dangerous state, that it was sending signals to the brain of stress, and that was making her stressed. The other person had really similar symptoms, but theirs was triggered by stress.
• 46:16
  Unknown: So we did all the same things, of looking at food intolerances, removing that, you know, things that were triggering him and repopulating his gut with bacteria, but he was still getting symptoms because his stress was at such a high level that it was going the other way around. His stress was triggering the symptoms, whereas for the first person, the gut was triggering the stress. So that's where you start to you know, you look at all the main factors and how they're playing for each person, and when you go through those four steps, it will become apparent which the main one is, because it was and for him, it was a stress. So, yeah, it's really interesting how to see how much of an impact that has, and telling people when you have stomach acid, you know, acid reflux, you have, you know, you have an esophageal sphincter, so the bottom of your of your esophagus, you have, like a, almost like an elastic band that keeps that close. So your stomach acid stays in your stomach. When you're stressed, it releases and relaxes that sphincter so your acid can go up and it's like, again, it's not just like, oh, stress is causing that. It literally has a physiological impact on how your digestion works. And it might seem like the simplest thing, but it's one of the hardest things for people to manage. Is stress. Wow, yeah,
• 47:27
  Turo Virta: that's that's such an interesting story. So what?
• 47:32
  Turo Virta: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their journey of managing IBS,
• 47:39
  Unknown: yeah, I think someone who's just at the beginning, I would say to work on your line.
• 47:42
  Unknown: Up with it, something you have to deliver forever. Deliver forever, without a doubt, like, Don't worry, it's not something that you will have to have forever. I would start working on a mindset, because as soon as you start to really accept your the reality of your situation and approach it with more curiosity, rather than frustration. Again, that's going to reduce your stress levels, but it's going to make you more aware, because as soon as you're stressed, you almost can't see anything. So like, you know, when you're stressed and you're you need to leave for work and you can't find your keys, and you're flapping around, like, where are my keys? And then someone says, Oh, they're right next to you. Because they're calm, you're able to see things more. And it's the same with IBS. If you're really stressed, you almost can't think about what, what could be causing it?
• 48:27
  Unknown: And I've had this experience myself, where I then was really bloated and just had a really big flare up, and was thinking, why, what? Why is this happening? And I thought, hold on, practice what you preach.
• 48:35
  Unknown: Get curious. What's happened this last day that was different to usual, you know? And I traced back the last 24 hours, and I thought, I've been I've eaten too much in a short period of time. I've slept really poorly.
• 48:53
  Unknown: I'm really stressed with work.
• 48:53
  Unknown: And you're like, Well, of course, I'm triggered. Then that makes sense, and then immediately you can say, okay, body like, I'm sorry I put you through that. What do I need to do to help? I need to first of all just look at reducing my stress levels and getting back into a rhythm. So as soon as you approach something of curiosity, it just puts you in a position to be able to notice the obvious. More, yeah,
• 49:14
  Turo Virta: no, that's a, that's, that's a, that's a great example, how to actually, how to actually, to get started, just to be this very, very small, simple step. And then, because there is, if I understood, right? There is not like, really, like you mentioned, there is not like a one solution or or really, like a treatment, that you can say that now it's done. You don't, you don't have to deal with it anymore. Is there? Are there any new, like, a treatments or research in the field of IPs that developing there is all, all the time coming, some new medication. Something, is there something in area of IPs?
• 50:00
  Unknown: Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite things to recommend is a probiotic company called opti back, because they specifically create probiotics for different types of IBS. So it could be for constipation predominant, or it could be if you're on antibiotics, you can have this probiotic alongside it. And they really rigorously test their probiotics as well. So they'll release, you know, they're good for studies and articles and things like that, to look at which bacteria you need for certain types of situations. So if it's more diarrhea predominant, why that might be and which bacteria might be low.
• 50:35
  Unknown: So it gives you a bit more of an idea. Rather than just going for a general probiotic, maybe I need this specific one. Yeah, that would be something that I'd recommend in terms of developments. I think it's really interesting, because I'm starting to see practitioners have their own approaches to things, which is really nice, because you start to see people approaching things in their own unique way based on what they've experienced. But yeah, that would be the main thing. And honestly, I think stress, because there's just so much coming out now about the Vegas stuff, and about about stress and how much it impacts the body and the gut, and it's becoming, it used to be seen as quite like woo, woo, or, you know, how does that have an impact? But it's now, there's so many more examples in scientific studies of how much it impacts that it's it's showing it as as proof, right, as proof, right, as scientific proof, which helps people to understand that it is real,
• 51:31
  Turo Virta: yeah, and obviously it's, it's something, of course, like I have heard about the Vegas nerve and but it was for me until, before this conversation, I was like, also, like, in some level of my knowledge, I was like, Is this like a real thing, or is it like, it's just some kind of puro talk or or something like, you know, you are trying to say, because, you know, because what I See, unfortunately, that in a social media it's all like it's nowadays, it's every second, like there is some gut health specialist and and blaming for cortisol for everything, and, and that there is some with this, course, or whatever, you are fixing your cortisol. And that is that is basically fixing everything and but those are those that there is actually some studies which, which are like you explained like that.
• 52:34
  Turo Virta: There is how it's affecting.
• 52:37
  Turo Virta: What is the cause it's it might not be the only cause, but when you fix, start fixing that, it start to actually it's related for so many other problems,
• 52:48
  Unknown: yeah, for sure. And I think if someone is consuming a lot of that content, it can be quite overwhelming as well, and it can feel quite you know, you don't know what you can trust and who you can trust them and what up to you. But something, yeah, health problem is, if you've seen something and you've tried it and it's not maybe made that much of a difference, just think of it as a jigsaw. So like the four factors that I look at, gut microbiome, food intolerances, inflammation and stress, I look at everybody, but then it will be a very unique approach to each person. So how much is stress? Is it only 40% of your trigger? Is it 80% of your trigger like they'll all be at play. But it doesn't mean that just addressing one thing is going to resolve everything, because it's like putting together your unique Jigsaw of of IBS and essentially,
• 53:38
  Turo Virta: yeah, no, that's that was such a such too interesting. I learned so much.
• 53:42
  Turo Virta: So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. Learn definitely love a lot from you. What? Where people can find you in social media, how people can work with you. Feel free to share everything.
• 53:59
  Unknown: Yeah, sure. So, best place to find me, probably, which is called IBM.
• 54:10
  Unknown: And then I'm on Instagram as well, which I'll I'll give you the handle to put in the show notes, because my name is stupidly long. So yeah, people can just check the show notes for that, I guess. But on my podcast, I do have, like, a quiz that people can take, which tells them the most likely causative factor of the IBS like, what the contributing factor is like, which of those four areas it might fall into.
• 54:31
  Unknown: So, yeah, those are the best ways to contact me.
• 54:34
  Unknown: Thank you so much. That was fun.
• 54:38
  Unknown: Thank you,
• 54:43
  Turo Virta: perfect. Thank you so much. That was such a enjoyable conversation. I really enjoy. Thanks. Yeah, me too. No.
• 54:50
  Turo Virta: Thanks
• 54:51
  Unknown: for having me on. It's really, really, really fun to talk about that and like, yeah, I didn't expect us to go into like, that realm of stress and all the physiological like causes, but it made me realize, like, yeah, people just, we just don't know, we just don't talk about it enough, like, how it literally has a physical impact on your gut. So yeah,
• 55:12
  Turo Virta: no, it's really, it's, it's often, like, this kind of things, like, because I, those are like, also in my practice, what I, what I hear all the time, like, I stress, I don't have time and, and then, you know, there might be some people who have those, exactly those symptoms, what you talked about. And it says that it was such an eye opening for me too, that okay, this might be actually related for something else. And then there is a way out of it. And it says that, it says that you know when you know, of course, it's it says that, like everybody, of course, are talking about stress, but then what it is actually causing, and what could be the reasons and and that it might be just reducing stress is helping to have some to relieve your gut issues, or IBS, or or whatever, definitely.
• 56:01
  Unknown: And when people understand why, then it makes because I think, like you say, we all talk about stress all the time, and it almost becomes like white noise, like you just, yeah, right here, by the time, an impact, it makes you realize, oh yeah, of course. It just makes you take it more seriously and see how, you know that could cause a massive flare up of symptoms, especially things like, you say, with back pain, because you get your, you know, you're getting inflammatory responses. And, yeah, the cause,
• 56:37
  Turo Virta: it's just to go into that course, like, what is actually behind all these possible reasons, and then then, you know, when you start to address one. Okay, it helped a bit that it's address your next one. And this is kind of ongoing test, trial error, something works, something not, and then to see what works for is each individual. And that's what that your four way of ways, how you do those things and how you explained it so well.
• 57:11
  Unknown: Oh, thank you so much.
• 57:11
  Unknown: I appreciate that. Yeah, it interesting conversation. And like I say, Thanks for Thanks for having me
• 57:24
  Turo Virta: on the show. Uh, publish this episode. It's going to be either next week or week after next week. My podcast is always it's on Thursday. I will publish it and my will I will put your Instagram. I will put your I just followed you there.
• 57:44
  Turo Virta: Is there anything else you want to share in your podcast?
• 57:48
  Unknown: No, I mean, I could put the I could, yeah, I'll put the podcast. I'll send you a link to the podcast. I could send you a link to the quiz as well, if people want to do that. Yeah, probably those
• 57:58
  Turo Virta: things, yeah. Just, just, I feel like, just, maybe better always like not to put, like, 10 different just it's either one, two, maybe three, but then if it's getting more, then it's okay.
• 58:14
  Unknown: I'll send the podcast, and, yeah, my instagram handle, and then we can just put it, put those in perfect sounds. Great.
• 58:30
  Unknown: Bye bye.