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Tyson Popplestone is a Comedian from Melbourne Australia. Join him for a brand new interview each week.
tyson (00:00.743)
I thought, I've got to, man, we're in Melbourne. Yeah, I don't know, are you familiar with Australia? I don't know, I know we're a distant land to anyone in the state, so it's something that a lot of Americans aren't super familiar with. But we're down, yeah, we're down in Melbourne.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (00:00.766)
Where are you, real quick, where are you in Australia? Are you in Sydney? Oh, you're in Melbourne, nice. That's cool.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (00:18.538)
My brother lived on the Gold Coast, which is not near Melbourne, but my brother lived on the Gold Coast for a while. I'm good friends with Simon Hill and we have a, I have a new supplement company that I'm launching in January and it's actually manufactured near Melbourne.
tyson (00:36.963)
Oh, that's amazing, man. So which, it's actually the whole products manufactured in Melbourne, or just be the Australian version of the product.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (00:39.383)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (00:46.454)
No, no, we're, we're manufacturing the whole thing in Australia. So to get it to the States. So we're going to sell it in Australia, New Zealand, the States and Canada. So we're manufacturing in New Zealand in Australia. We have a warehouse there for distribution, and then we are in the process. Like it's the manufacturing is done. Uh, we air freighted a whole bunch to Chicago.
and then the rest is coming by a boat and it's going to get here in January so we're launching on January 15th I think somewhere around there January 15th
tyson (01:19.055)
That's awesome. That's super exciting. What helped you land on the manufacturing place in Melbourne?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:25.722)
Um, my, uh, my business partner is Australian and actually the formulator that we used, she's Australian. So I basically would do like 8pm phone calls and, um, uh, it's, I mean, it's, I think it's quite manageable. I mean, the hard part is if you try to do London, Australia, and the states, that's hard, but, um, but Australia and the States, you know, we're just kind of usually somewhere around 12 or 16 hours apart. So, um, yeah, it's not, it's not too bad.
tyson (01:54.139)
For sure. Where are you based? Where in the states are you? Ah, nice.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:57.718)
I'm on the East Coast, just a little bit north of Florida. It's a place called Charleston, South Carolina. My wife is from here. Yeah.
tyson (02:04.299)
Oh my gosh. Yeah man, isn't that Jordan territory? That's, oh no, that's North Carolina. Is that what you said? Did you say South or North? Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (02:10.438)
Yes, you're right. Well, it's North Carolina, but he's from Wilmington and Wilmington is a little coastal town, coastal city. That's only about two hours north of here. So it's like conceptually very similar.
tyson (02:21.323)
Yeah, awesome man. That's a part of the world I'd love to be in. The last couple of years here in Melbourne, the one place I was... ..aw.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (02:24.59)
Dude, bring your kids, come on over. We, you know, when it's winter in Australia, it's summertime here, it's, you know, we got great beaches, so.
tyson (02:33.064)
I've seen some of them actually. Yeah, it's a part of the world. I've never been to the East Coast of the States. I've got a brother-in-law who lives in Oregon in a little town called Medford.
So we've been over there quite a few times, but the East Coast, I do a lot of standup comedy here in Australia. And so the East Coast, like particularly New York and in and around there is really appealing to me for that reason. But then Florida, I mean, I've seen the beaches, I've seen the weather. I think the stereotype or the picture in my mind of sort of that part of the world is probably how a lot of Americans see Australia, which is...
Completely inaccurate, but it's that it's always sunny the weather's always good and there's always a nice beach to go swim at
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (03:14.446)
Florida is very tropical. So even in our winter time, it's probably still, you know, it's still, it's not hot in the winter time in Florida, but it's decent. It's not bad. But like, you know, Miami, I mean, Miami is like almost in the Caribbean. So, yeah.
tyson (03:32.439)
Yeah man, yeah gee, no it'd be uh, it's definitely on, it's definitely on the holiday list.
Hey, yeah, before I hit record, you were telling me things have been busy over there, you're getting ready for kid number four. That, I mean, that's a fascinating subject before we launch off into what I was so excited to talk to you about. Like the time management of that is something that really fascinates me. I mean, I've kept a close eye on you and what you guys are doing over there. And listen to a number of podcasts. It seems as though you've got plenty on the timetable as it is. How has that management been? I know your kids are, you just told me your eldest daughter's nine.
The one in January is going to be the fresh one. But man, that sounds like it would have been a little bit of a jigsaw to try and piece together over the last few years with everything going on.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (04:18.382)
Uh, it is, I mean, I think, you know, I'm sure that you can, uh, relate to this. There's not a lot of people in the war in this, in this space that you and I are in that have kids. And I think what you kind of see is that, um, there's the people who are like in their twenties or maybe early thirties, they don't have kids, so they have more time and then people start having families and you sort of see like it thins out. There's not a lot of us.
And then it kind of comes back when people are like 55 and they have an empty nest, you know? So, you know, it's hard. It's hard. It's not easy, but I think that like, at the end of the day, it's just about priorities. So, you know, you just got to figure out what you care about. And then when the going gets tough, you just sort of go back to that list of like, here are my priorities. I'm going to stick to that. And then just grind it up.
tyson (05:15.687)
Yeah, yeah, it's good advice. It is funny, it's amazing. You can't see it in frame here, but just to my right, I've got like a list on my wall of the priorities, just so I can keep coming back to it. Cause I don't know how often you go through this, but like I'll look at things that need to get done during the week. And by the end of the week, it'll just feel like a little bit of a whirlwind of everything. So I've got like a list for the things that I'm aiming to get through. And then when I feel as though that's become too much of a priority, I'll look at the list and go, oh no, no.
But like on paper you say that like your wife and family are the most important thing. So why have they just got the dregs of your time? That's one thing that we've, I'm lucky to have a patient wife. We've been married, yeah, for...
12 years we've had a little bit of time to get used to each other and find out like strengths and weaknesses and luckily for me, I've got a wife who I think appreciates the fact that I'm a better bloke when I'm doing things that really spark my curiosity and I think the encouragement that I get from someone like her to pursue things like this makes it so much easier but I definitely know you're right like I'm 36, I've got a lot of friends who are you know not so lucky in the sense that
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (06:07.799)
Nice.
tyson (06:22.431)
Well, I mean, they probably enjoy what they do, but they're working full-time jobs because there's an expectation to bring home money, which I mean, rightly so, you've got to have money. But yeah, definitely don't take for granted. It sounds like you might have a good partner in crime in your corner for everything that you've created. I guess that applies more to the early days of starting something when you're not seeing sort of financial rewards for all the hard work you're putting in. I know a paycheck always helps to ease a lot of concerns.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (06:36.738)
Dude.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (06:48.214)
Yeah, I think all of that is completely true. And I honestly think at the end of the day, like all of these things, like this is one of the things that makes me very grateful for my wife because not every woman would support a man doing the things that you and I are doing, right? So it's just something for us to keep in mind that like we are empowered to do great things because of the woman who basically supports us and allows us to do that. And I think that's a beautiful thing. Like that's what a great marriage is. Great marriages, you know, you make each other better.
as opposed to dragging each other down. So, yeah.
tyson (07:19.175)
Yeah, for sure. It's really interesting, man. This is one thing that actually often comes up in my mind when I hear you speak, because obviously when you're looking at health, you're looking at it on a scale, which is probably microscopic in comparison to what a lot of the health conversation seems to be around. Obviously you touch broader subjects as a result of that, but it is interesting how it doesn't matter how far out you expand or how far in you expand, just how many different elements of our life have an impact on our overall health and wellbeing. And I often say to my wife,
I'm like, I couldn't imagine being in a relationship that I hated and just trying to look after all other areas of health because like when I'm stressed or tired or fatigued, which like fighting and tension seems to bring upon not just me but so many other people, it seems that so much, so many other areas of health seem to crumble. But don't you find that interesting? I mean, you've been looking at it probably more closely than I have.
for more years specifically, like in regards to the microbiome, but does it just constantly trip you out how much of an impact like health expands and draws back in?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (08:26.73)
Everything is everything is connected. You know what I mean? Everything is connected and it kind of feels like this is something we should talk about on the podcast. So maybe we should hit record so we can get into this.
tyson (08:35.835)
Dude, we're recording, I've got it going. Yeah, no, not at all, man. I'm glad I eased you into it. Ha ha ha.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (08:38.174)
Oh, okay. Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. Um, yeah, well, feel free to edit me asking that question. Um, everything is interconnected. You know, it's, it's amazing to think the other, the other part about this. So I kind of feel like, um, we are the product of our environment. And, um, and then environment is far more expansive than we realize. And we tend to, we tend to focus on nutrition a lot.
When in fact, it's all these other things that I think are just as important, if not more important. And this conversation that we're having brings me back to actually something that I've been thinking about lately that probably we're not talking about enough, which is social connection.
If you want to torture a person, you isolate them.
And if you want to add as many years as possible to a person's life, you draw them closer because people who are socially connected, they live longer. And that's actually more powerful for longevity than even fiber is. And so Tyson, there was this interesting study since we're on the topic of partnerships. There was this interesting study where they looked at the microbiomes of people who were
in a partnered relationship, or they were single. And the first thing is they found the people that were in a partnered relationship on average had a more healthy microbiome than the person who is single. Now, I mean, maybe there's other aspects to this, right? But then they looked also at like, how closely the microbiome is shared between people.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (10:31.326)
And they discovered that the microbiome is shared more among partners. So like you with your spouse, me with my, my wife is shared more among partners than it is among siblings, which is fascinating because when you're a kid, that's when you acquire your microbiome. It's partially acquired from your parents. It's partially acquired through genetics. It's partially acquired through the food that you eat.
tyson (10:44.135)
Thanks for watching!
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (10:58.11)
And you probably like, you know, you said, you mentioned that you, uh, you've been with your wife for 12 years. So you were in your early twenties when you met your wife, but that's more than 20 years before you met her. And according to this study, you share more microbes with your wife than you would with any, you know, brother or sister that you have. So, um, so choose the people that you cohabitate with choose wisely. But, but also I think that like, it's again, like we are, um,
We are innately social creatures and we can't change that, whether you want to or not. Like we need to lean into these relationships with people. And this is, I think today more important than ever, because we're getting drawn away from that by devices. And I think that's creating problems for us.
tyson (11:42.918)
Hmm.
for sure. It's interesting to hear you say that immediately my mind goes, well, of course, like we're sharing the same food. That makes sense that we're going to have a similar microbiome and we're living in the same environment. But the curve ball you just threw at me was the sibling one. Like if you're growing up in the same environment, eating the same food as your siblings, but yet there's still like a fairly vast difference in what you're experiencing there. What's going on in that regard? Because I mean, this is why the subject's so fascinating to me, because I feel like there's a lot of bro science out there at the
moment around the microbiome and fermented foods and gut health. And you hear something like that and you go, wait, hang on a second. Like, so you mean it's more than just the kombucha we drink, it's more than just the food that we eat, there's something else which is taking place here, which is influencing what the actual health and look of our gut microbiome is.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (12:37.022)
Yeah, I think it's more than just the food that you eat. I think it's far more vast than that. I think it's the environment that you live in. I also think it's the state of your mood. So to expand, so two things. First of all, in that study, they actually controlled for diet. So they were attempting to show that just like, even like regardless of whether you shared the same type of food with your partner or not.
that actually this was like a more powerful thing than anything else living in the same space. There's been other studies that have shown this and it kind of gets back to ideas that were presented almost 40 years ago called the hygiene hypothesis, where they noticed that people who come from more clean homes
tended to be more prone to having allergic diseases. And we've noticed that allergic diseases and autoimmune diseases have really taken off in the last 50 years. And the more that we've dug into this question, the more that we've discovered that it's not just the immune system that's at play, it's also the microbiome. And I was just looking at an interesting study earlier today where they noticed that
Estonia, which was a part of the Soviet Union, that Estonia started to have the rise of type one diabetes, which is autoimmune diabetes and other allergic conditions. Those things really took off after they left the Soviet Union. And it was really like as their economy emerged, post Soviet Union, these things started happening.
And so, well, I mean, that would be consistent with the hygiene hypothesis and this idea that like cleanliness, excessive cleanliness can actually be problematic for us. But what they did to test this, they wanted to be more clear on like, so is it the microbiome?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (14:47.874)
And they knew that in animals.
If you take an animal that is susceptible to autoimmune diabetes and you give it certain microbes, it will never get autoimmune diabetes. So they wanted to know like, is this possible in humans? Could the microbes explain the immune system? And so they compared the microbiome of kids from Estonia with kids from Finland, which are right next door, and kids from this specific part of Russia, not the whole country, this specific part of Russia that was like right there on the border of Estonia.
And they took monthly poop specimens from children from birth until three years of age. And the discovery was fascinating because what they found is that actually the people in Russia, they're less likely to get these diagnoses they believe because they actually have this type of E. coli in their microbiome that you and I would refer to as like that's a bug that causes infections.
But because their immune system was exposed to this bug during the first three years of life, their immune system got very comfortable being around different types of bugs. And as a result of that, it didn't ever turn and get aggressive. Like it would be with an emergent autoimmune disease. So it's, you know, again, like there's these layers of evidence everywhere.
tyson (16:15.055)
It's so... For sure. It's actually, it sparks a thought in me. I went to the Himalayas for a month back in 2015 for a big trek. We were going mountain climbing. And obviously one of the main concerns for me was making sure that I was getting really clean drinking water. Like I had to have filtered water, I had to have bottled water. The idea of me accessing the water from the rivers, lakes, wherever it was that a lot of the locals were getting their water from was sort of off limits. And I remember
at one of my sherpas, he stopped to fill up his water bottle just in one of the streams. And I said, oh, like we're okay to drink here. And he goes, no, not for Westerners. This one's just for locals. And at the time it didn't make a whole heap of sense, but I guess what he's referring to there was probably something really similar to what you're speaking about there. There must be something within him which is making.
that more tolerable or more easily digested for lack of a better word. For me, I'll drink that. And I had this experience when I was there, I just accidentally got exposed to an unclean drinking water and it just wrecked me for a couple of weeks. There seems to be like a number of these. I mean, I've had the same experiences in Bali. Is that purely like a microbiome thing? Is that a bug or what's allowing them to be able to drink it and not me?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (17:34.826)
I think it is a microbiome thing. The same is true in North America, where many people in the States will travel for vacation to Mexico, which is our southern neighbor. And the water is slightly different there, and they have higher levels of E. coli. So like people, not just drinking water, but like eating fruit, eating things that have been washed in the local water. Many Americans get sick and we call it traveler's diarrhea.
tyson (17:36.487)
Mm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (18:04.618)
where they call it Montezuma's revenge, which is sort of their name for the fact that Americans come to Mexico and then get sick drinking the water, but the vocals they're able to drink it with no issue at all. So yeah, so our body, our body, our immune system, it's like the reaction of our immune system that actually is a major determining factor there that our body is used to certain things versus not.
tyson (18:28.587)
Yeah, before we get too far into it, maybe it's important because I'm sure there's a lot of people listening today that are relatively similar to me, maybe even less so, like super unfamiliar with what we're talking about when we're actually speaking about microbiome. So at the risk of just asking one question, which you can run with for the next hour, did you want to just pave that foundation, lay that foundation, let us know exactly what the microbiome is and just the impact that it does play on our overall health?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (18:56.978)
Yeah, totally. So there's this new science that has emerged in the last 15, 20 years that for all of us, including myself as a medical doctor, I'm a gastroenterologist. So my expertise is the stomach and intestines. For all of us, it's just completely changing the game. It's forcing us to rethink things. So what we have discovered because of new laboratory techniques is that us as humans, like we're not alone as humans.
We actually are more properly defined as a super organism because we are the home to trillions of living creatures that just so happened to be microscopic so you can't see them with the naked eye, but if you had a microscope and you were to run up and down your body, you would find every single place that you look, there is life on your body. There's life throughout your body.
And that includes, you know, your skin, your eyes, your nose, your mouth, and then down through your intestines. And it's inside the colon, which is the large intestine where they are most concentrated in that place. We, uh, we have about 38 trillion microbes. Now this is, um, rather hard number for us to wrap our minds around. Uh, but like, if we were to like, look at all the stars that exist in our universe, we would need.
Literally hundreds of universes to match how many you know microbes are literally living inside of us right now So now these microbes These they're there with a purpose They help us to digest our food that's the first thing we think about right we think about microbes and probiotics and things like this Yes, they help us to digest our food, but they also I want the listeners to understand that it's actually so much more
They're connected to our metabolism, to our immune system, which is what you and I were just talking about a moment ago, to our mood, our brain health, and even to hormones and hormonal balance. So when we think about like things that are happening throughout our entire body, we may not.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (21:16.574)
traditionally associate them with our gut microbes, but the new science is showing us that we need to actually associate them with these gut microbes because the gut microbes are really sort of the command center for human health.
tyson (21:29.355)
Yeah, I think when you get a topic like this, and as I mentioned, I know the conversation, it's ancient in some cultures, but in Western culture, I feel as though it's just becoming more of a big conversation due to people like yourself. But whenever we start speaking about things like this, it seems really easy to try and boil it down into something small and go, okay, well, gut health and microbiome is really important. And if you simply have this drink or drink this yogurt or have this fermented food,
a really good step in the right direction. And so as a result, you lose a whole heap of the conversation that seems to become a really good marketing point for so many companies to simply tap into that ignoring everything else in regards to diet and fibre and lifestyle and sleep and recovery and things like that. From your perspective, how do you think the general understanding of what it is that you're speaking about is going? Because as I say, it seems like a relatively new conversation. It seems like one which is blowing a...
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (22:15.959)
Yeah.
tyson (22:28.471)
a lot of minds. I'll have a conversation to someone and it's like the idea of trillions of like living organisms just isn't being honest in us. It just seems to not kind of be absorbed super well with so many people. And maybe part of that is the fact that it just cannot be seen unless you've got the microscope over it. But
From your perspective, the depth that you go on this subject, I can imagine it must be a frustrating thing to watch, you know, such a blatant attempt at selling a product as the answer to what's gonna fix any of your health issues, whether it be in your stomach or in your head or just your overall general health.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (23:06.57)
Um, you know, that certainly exists, but I think that the reality is that it's 2023 and, um, nutrition is not the only place where misinformation exists these days. Right. It's just, it's gotten crazy in the world. And, um, and I think we're going through a process of figuring out how best to handle information as humans, all of us. Right. And, um, and, and I think that at some point.
tyson (23:17.088)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (23:36.246)
we're going to have to start asking the question, who is a credible source that I should believe in? Because I think we've seen just far too many examples, not just like nutrition and things like this and products, but like just sort of globally, far too many examples of people being driven by an agenda and not being driven by honesty and the truth and facts. So I think we need, you know, I would have liked for...
uh, people to start asking those questions. And you know, what I'm here to talk about are the things that I see as truth and facts. Um, and I'll be the first to admit that like, first of all, I'm not perfect. And second of all, I think that there's a lot of different ways to approach this. I don't think that there's this one formula that is the solution to health. For every single one of us in the same way, right? Like we all have a different place that we come from. Um, with, with regard to gut health, I mean,
I do think that like health, like people are becoming increasingly interested in this. And to me, the exciting thing about this Tyson is that there's, um, there's things that trend and trend will stick around for a couple of years, but then there's things that are so real that they are true game changers. They are true game changers. They truly are revolutionary.
And those things don't just stick around for a few years. Those things transform and continue to grow and get better. And I think that's where we're at with gut health. We're still quite early in this process. So for people who are listening now, like you can jump on board and you can be an early adopter into these concepts. Um, and it will keep getting better, but, um, at the same time, where we are today relative to where we are, not that long ago,
tyson (25:20.631)
Hmm
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (25:28.386)
is light years ahead and there are true opportunities to make small changes that are sensible and that will work within your own life and will make you like they'll make you happy like you're not going to be miserable but yet at the same time those choices are things that you're doing that will that can like really transform your gut health.
tyson (25:45.939)
For sure. So as an umbrella, that seems like a nice little entry into a question that I was gonna ask you because obviously the question that anyone who hears about this is wondering is, okay, well, first of all, how do I know the health of my microbiome? How do I know my gut health's current status? And how do I change it?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (26:04.074)
Okay, so the first question, I might surprise you because I think that most people would think I would say, well, here's the test that I recommend. But actually, I think we should just start with the basics. How do you feel? So, because when your gut is healthy, you should feel good and be energized and sleep well and recover well.
And not have symptoms from a digestive perspective. And what I mean by that is like bloating, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, constipation, difficulty handling your food. Um, so when your gut is healthy, like you should feel well and be mostly symptom free in terms of those types of things. I also think that like, we have made it, um, taboo to talk about poop.
Yet, like, if I were a cardiologist, I would be here saying, like, the first thing you want to do is check your heart rate and your blood pressure. So I'm a gastroenterologist. So the first thing I want you to do is look in the toilet bowl, right? Because sitting there, I mean, look, like I know it's weird. We're not supposed to do this, but you know what? There is a world of information there because there is no other thing.
tyson (27:07.379)
Hehehe
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (27:21.986)
that tells you more about what's happening with your gut microbes because your poop is made up of your gut microbes. It's going to shock some people, but the majority of your weight of your stool is actually microbial, like bacteria. It's not the excrement of the food that you ate yesterday. That's a minority of the part. So what I want people to look at is like...
tyson (27:45.352)
Hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (27:50.386)
Is it a normal shape? It should be soft. It should be formed. It should be like a torpedo. Um, is it a normal shape? How often are you going? Most of us should be somewhere in the range of less than three times a day, more than three times a week. Um, and how do you feel? Do you feel good when you have a good bowel movement? Because frankly, having a good bowel movement should make you feel good.
So these are some of the things that I look at Tyson. The other thing that I would say real quick is like, if I were in the clinic and I'm about to walk in to see a patient, I'll grab that patient's chart and I'll take a look and I look at their past medical history. And what I'm looking for is like a history of digestive disorders, metabolic disorders. So like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity.
Immune disorders, so that includes allergic issues and autoimmune issues.
Um, hormonal issues. So like particularly with women, polycystic ovary syndrome would be an example, um, endometriosis in men, rectal dysfunction at a young age. And then, uh, and then mood or cognitive or, uh, issues of cognition. So like, you know, major depression or generalized anxiety disorder. And the reason why I'm looking at these things is like every single one of them that I just mentioned is connected back to our gut health.
every single one of them. So it's not just a digestive apparatus. Again, it's connected to our metabolism, immune system, hormones, our mood, our brain health. So let's look at those things too. And when you see those things being present, then you know something's going on here because this is the root of the issue. So, yeah, so this is, no, that's all good. Those are the things that I look at.
tyson (29:35.783)
Hmm. Yeah, it's a really good point. Sorry to interrupt you there.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (29:44.502)
The majority of gut tests, I don't think are necessary, to be completely honest with you, the majority of them. Now, what I want to see in gut tests, and this will happen, are tests that have been validated by clinical research. If I'm gonna consider a test, I'm gonna ask the question, what science do you have to back up your test to show me that it's worth my money?
And, um, and if they don't have an answer to that question, then I'm not going to pull out my credit card. Um, so I work with a company called Zoe. Now Zoe is not available in Australia at the moment. We're very popular in the UK and, um, and we are, uh, growing in popularity in the States. And, um, and Zoe is not just a gut test. We also, uh, are a metabolic test. So we do like a blood sugar test and blood fat.
But the reason I bring this up is the reason why I work with this company as their U S medical director is because we're going about this the way that I just described, which is that we started running studies, clinical trials in 2017 and we didn't even launch our product until 2020 because we were waiting for the results of the clinical study to show that our product works. So, um, shall we move on to talking about actionable tips, things that people can do?
tyson (30:50.139)
Hmm.
tyson (31:08.923)
That'd be good. If you don't mind, I've got a quick question just in regards to that. And it's something that you touched on briefly just before and it's in relation just to the information that's accessible. Like you said it nicely, we're learning to navigate just an absolute overabundance of information. And I mean, we saw this over the last couple of years with specific regards to COVID and regardless of sort of what side you sat on the fence of that, you had some people quoting the science of the effectiveness of the vaccine and you have some people quoting the science
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (31:12.302)
Please.
tyson (31:38.857)
the ineffectiveness of the vaccine. And I'm sure there's so many interweaving variables there. And to myself who I'll happily throw myself in as an untrained observer, I look at that and I go, oh my gosh, like both of these people, I'm pretty sure are smarter than me. Do you know what I mean? The test that they're referring to make a lot of sense. The way that they say it with the confidence and clarity, I go, well, you both sound very switched on. And this is where I feel I get a little confused in this topic as well.
in regards to, I mean, at the moment, the new trend seems to be the carnivore diet. I've heard a lot of people speak about the impact of the benefits on things like inflammation, depression in their own lives and anecdotal, I don't know the science behind it. And I hear that and I go, okay, well, that's really interesting. From a...
purely uneducated perspective. I go, it doesn't seem right. Like it seems to be lacking a whole heap and I don't really know why I think that apart from it's just what I think. And then the flip side, you go, no, okay. Well, it's very clear that vegans are right. Like look at these studies and look what I say and look how healthy I am. And it seems, it doesn't matter if you're an endurance athlete or a bodybuilder or something in between. Both fields seem to have these people to point to go, hey, but look at these guys, look how healthy and fit and strong. You wanna be like them? Adopt this diet.
Who do I listen to?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (33:04.842)
Yeah. No, I think that's quite, I think it's quite confusing. Uh, I completely understand what you mean by all that. Um, and you know, I'm, I'm happy to comment on all those things. And I, but I think that like, at the same time, um, a person who paints the choice as absolute where this is like, Hey, this is the only way that you can do this and you're not healthy if you don't do it this way, they're almost always wrong. So because the body is more adaptable than that, um,
tyson (33:27.787)
Yeah!
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (33:33.338)
So I think that there's many different paths to health.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (33:40.666)
And, and, you know, I think that like, if something is true.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (33:49.446)
you should be hearing it from multiple sources that are independent of one another. So I'll give you an example. There's a guy that I work with at Zoe, his name is Tim Spector. And he's one of the most published scientists, Professor Tim Spector, he's one of the most published scientists on the planet. And I didn't know him.
tyson (33:52.657)
Hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (34:16.098)
When I wrote my book fiber fueled, I was writing it back in 2018 Well, what's interesting is that he wrote a book in the UK and I wrote a book in the US and If you were to hold these books next to each other you would find that we're basically saying the exact same thing with slight variations and I think that there's something to be said about that because the reason that happened wasn't because I listened to him I didn't know who he was
tyson (34:33.411)
Mm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (34:45.462)
The reason that this happened was that he and I were looking at the same science and came to the same conclusions. And, and I think that there's something to be said when, when you have different people in different places who are giving an honest look at the science and, um, and reaching the same conclusion, you know, on the flip side, I think that we can all agree that there are some people out there that are clearly agenda driven. And, um, agenda, what that means is you start with the end point.
And then you just kind of figure out how you're going to contort your body to make it true. Um, so, and I think we have to be careful with that because when you have to like constantly make up excuses of why things are a certain way, then I think it starts to become pretty clear that like, you're not actually just being honest with what's going on here, but it's hard. I it's hard. I mean, I will fully admit it's hard. You know, I, I have the advantage when it comes to like nutrition of, or, or of science, so like.
tyson (35:15.965)
Sure.
tyson (35:30.955)
Yeah, yeah for sure.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (35:39.698)
I have a master's degree of clinical investigation from one of the top American universities. I've published many papers myself, so look, I can just dig into this myself. I don't have to turn towards other sources. But on the flip side, when it comes to news or politics, a lot of times I'm like, what is going on right now? So we're all human. We're all feeling this way.
tyson (36:01.577)
Yeah!
tyson (36:05.391)
Yeah, for sure. That's funny. It's funny when you flip the thing that got our attention focused on, you all of a sudden get a real taste of how the average person looks, probably feels looking in at the world of nutrition. But I slightly deviated the direction that we're gonna go there. You were about to take us towards some actionable steps, which is something that I was really keen to, I guess, present. I'd love to pick your mind on a couple of things in particular, but I mean, as an entryway into the topic of actionable steps,
average person start who goes, okay, I'm not even sure whether my gut health is good or bad, but I'm curious in finding out and taking practical steps to improving it.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (36:44.49)
Yeah, I mean, I think that like, let's start with the fundamentals of what we discussed a moment ago. The fundamentals are think about whether or not you're having symptoms, specifically digestive symptoms, think about, or, you know, take a look at your poop and whether or not that's giving you signs of a healthful poop versus like diarrhea, constipation, things like this. And think about these medical, you know, your past medical history and whether that's showing a pattern that emerges where the root cause might be, might be the gut microbes.
tyson (36:53.905)
Sure.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (37:14.966)
What can we do about it? Well, the truth is this from my perspective, Tyson, whether you have an issue or not, you should care about this because this is so important to your health. And if that's the case, you don't wanna wait until you're diagnosed with an issue to then try to fix it. That's the innate problem in our healthcare systems, both yours and ours over here in the States.
It's reactive, it waits until there's a problem. Let's start caring now. So one of the things that we can do, again, no matter who you are, no matter what dietary pattern you follow, here are some of the things I want you to do. Because you can just modify them to fit what you're currently doing. Diversity is really key. Variety is really key to these microbes. They love it. The more variety we have in our diet.
the more that we're able to basically feed and nourish a wide variety of microbes because they don't all eat the same thing. So different foods have different advantages for different microbes. You know, one of them might like black beans and a different one likes arugula, rocket. So, um, so the first thing is I want everyone to add.
lot of diversity or variety in their diet, specifically when it comes to plant based foods, get as much variety as you can. Um, feel free to interrupt me if you want to like expand or you have questions about any of those. Okay, cool. Um, so people often ask fiber, you know, how do we approach that? Um, well, if you're doing that, if you're doing this, if you're
tyson (38:47.067)
Sure, no no, now you go for it, this is good.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (39:01.142)
adding more variety to your diet when it comes to plant-based foods, the chances are that you're going to increase your fiber intake in the process of doing this. If I had my way, we would reduce our intake of ultra-processed foods. These are the things that come in boxes and packages that you, under no circumstances, have the ability to make in your own home. It's not possible. The only way that this can be made is it has to be manufactured and it has to be developed by food scientists.
and they have a negative effect on the microbiome.
tyson (39:34.159)
Yeah, one thing that Michael Pollan, who I'm sure you're familiar with, said that really sticks with me is he says, anyone who's confused about where to start with their food, start with foods that your great grandmother would have recognized as food. And I feel like that's so interesting. I mean, you can look back and romanticize the, you know, the 30s or 40s, but I guess one thing that you'd notice quite quickly is a lot of the food's probably not gonna have a shelf life of 12 months or more.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (39:59.818)
So that's an interesting point because if a food has a shelf life of 12 months, there's a reason why. Spoilage of, a spoilage of food is caused by microbes. All right. Microbes from the environment, not necessarily the microbes that are part of your body, microbes from the environment. Microbes are everywhere. You walk outside today. Everything that's alive has a microbiome. Every tree, every plant, every flower, every squirrel or animal, every dog.
Um, so when food starts to spoil and break down, that's actually just the, it's the circle of life. Basically the earth is taking that food back and turning it into soil. So if food doesn't spoil, the reason why it doesn't spoil is because they've done something that kills microbes. This is why you can have the, you know, processed meats that sit in that cooler for a freaking year.
tyson (40:48.603)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (40:58.11)
And it's like, how does that meat not go rancid? Because it's got, it's got preservatives. Preservatives is like almost like saying antibiotics. We're basically saying the same thing. Preservatives destroy microbes, just like antibiotics do.
tyson (41:00.788)
Hehehe
tyson (41:06.511)
Hmm
tyson (41:10.935)
Is that the same with fruits and vegetables? Because we often notice, so our equivalent of, I guess it's like a Walmart, you know, you go here, you've got Coles and Woolworths. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Victoria Australian supermarkets, but they're our big two. And you go in there and you buy an apple, for example, and the apples, I feel you can leave those in a bowl for a week or two, they might start to go a little bit saggy towards the end. Whereas there's a great store in the city called Terra Madre,
It's like a bulk organic fruits, vegetables, anything else under the umbrella of organic foods that you can get for a reasonable price. And my wife gets frustrated because when we buy apples at the organic store, we'll bring them home and the shelf life on those is noticeably different. And I know that they don't have any waxes or anything that's coated, but I always wonder like what exactly is going on there that's allowing the big supermarkets to have apples which last for such a long time and this little organic grocery store to have apples which frustrate
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (41:55.627)
Yes.
tyson (42:10.711)
life.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (42:11.454)
Yeah, when things spoil, it's actually reassuring to me. Um, cause it means that you're dealing with something that's, um, uh, probably less sprayed. So they've studied, uh, organic. It's funny that you brought up apples because there's a study that fits perfectly for this. So apples have a microbiome. Okay. Just like we do. Um, and the microbes that are a part of the apple help that apple to mature from a flower to a fruit all the way.
tyson (42:15.311)
Yeah, interesting.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (42:40.27)
And it's just like our microbes help us to mature to become healthy adults. Um, and, and they compared the apple that is, um, conventionally farmed, sprayed with the usual pesticides versus the apple that is grown organically. And they found that the apple that was grown organically had more microbes and it had a more diverse microbiome. Just like us humans. Um, and they've.
Actually discovered in many studies where people eat food and the microbes that are part of that food show up in their poop. So the fact that like, yes, we can get probiotics from taking a probiotic capsule. We can also get probiotics from fermented foods. I think most people realize that. What many people may not realize is that you can also get probiotics from eating raw food.
tyson (43:35.739)
Hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (43:36.634)
And that's not to say that raw food is the only way you can eat health. You can eat food that's cooked. That's also healthy. But having some raw food can actually be very good for us because it can have live microbes.
tyson (43:47.023)
Yeah, that's so wild. The organic question was one that I wanted to go into more detail with. Tell me if I've derailed your thought, because I know I've sort of just interjected you who are on a roll, but I'm gonna take your advice. Good, good.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (43:58.09)
No, no, I like it. I like it. I think the organic question is a bit tricky. I mean, it kind of, cause it kind of depends a little bit like, um, farming practices in the States, I think are different than there's certainly different than Europe and I'm guessing they're different than Australia. There's some things that we allow here. Like a lot more glyphosate in the States than are allowed in other countries. And I think that, you know, the problem from my perspective is that's not transparent.
The consumer does not get a package that has a warning. This was sprayed with glyphosate. It's not even on the ingredient list. You can't even, there's no way for you to know. And so to me, the major advantage of organic, because, um, you might say that glyphosate has not been proven to be harmful to humans and that's debatable. But.
Glyphosate has clearly been proven to be harmful to bacteria. And so if you put it into your food supply, even small microscopic amounts, well small microscopic amounts are enough to cause harm to microscopic creatures. And um...
So, and I do worry that that's problematic. So the advantage, one of the major advantages from my perspective to organic is the fact that organic food, if it truly is raised organic, then it's not ever sprayed with glyphosate, which to me is like a point of safety here in the States. Not all food needs to be consumed organic, by the way. You know, my general rule, if you want to save a little bit of extra money, if it has a thick skin that you're going to peel off, then I'm less inclined to buy organic.
tyson (45:37.383)
Thanks for watching!
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (45:38.002)
So if it's a banana, a mango, avocado, something like this, if you're removing the skin, then I'm less inclined. But if you're going to eat the skin, if you're going to eat the surface, like greens or berries or an apple, because most people don't peel their apples, nor do I want you to, but if you're going to eat something on the surface, then that's where to me, I prefer organic when possible.
tyson (46:05.951)
Yeah, I've been, I printed out a, I think it was Zach Bush who had a list on his website, or it was just someone that I heard speak about at the very least of exactly what you just mentioned then. That's been really helpful to me, but it's so funny the looks that I get, because as we mentioned, I've got two boys and I'm, you know, really disciplined with making sure they get good natural foods. Like I try and completely eliminate, I mean, as much as I can. It's very difficult at parties and if they're at daycare or anything like that, but a lot of the processed
are part of so many kids diets but my mum often laughs at me because we'll go to the supermarket and exactly that she'll go to buy grapes or go to buy apples or go to buy you know is something else which is clearly been sprayed it hasn't got a skin to protect it and I mean it stresses me out a little bit. Are those kind of foods just a no-go zone for your kids or do you have rules around how to wash it because I've heard that like things like glyphosate aren't just gonna wash off with water.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (47:03.79)
Um, it's a good question. I, you know, I, I'm not perfect about like washing my food. I do the best that I can, but I don't, you know, many people who are very serious about this, they would actually soak it with some, um, some baking soda and that would help to actually like get the chemicals off. So to me, I'm just more like a rinse and a general scrub and then move forward. But, um, you know, I think, I think like, this is one of the challenges that
The truth is this, this is one of the challenges that exists of living in the modern world, which is that very, very few of us are living a life, even when we eat clean, very few of us are living a life that's similar to the life that existed a hundred years ago. And so there's just so much to that, that like there's little things like this, that, you know, or like the water supply, right?
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (48:02.594)
There's screwy advantages to having clean water. There's no doubt about that, but do we take it too far and what's the right level for us? These are all questions that exist, yeah.
tyson (48:06.867)
Mm.
tyson (48:13.279)
Yeah. So what are some of the standout factors that like when you refer to the lifestyles of a hundred years ago, obviously that social connection that so many of us lack these days, the more accessible natural ingredients that are gonna be on the shelves. I mean, the lack of technology. Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (48:29.846)
Dude, where do we begin? Let's think about this. Let's think about this and unpack this for a moment. Think about the food. All right, so the standard American diet, I know it's not quite as bad in Australia, but I don't think you guys are too far off of us. The average American, about 60 or 70% of their calories come from ultra-processed foods.
All right, now we have a proud distinction in our two countries, the US and Australia. We're the top consumers of beef in the world. And look, I think that you can be healthy and consume beef, don't get me wrong. But the amount of consumption post-World War II is very different than pre-World War II. And the other part of this that I think is really important to acknowledge is the modern agriculture practices.
tyson (49:06.567)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (49:20.706)
that often include antibiotics. If the cow or the pig or whatever animal gets shot up with antibiotics, it makes them grow faster. And they don't have to feed them more calories and they will get fatter.
And if I were a farmer, that's exactly what I would do because I would make more money. And the problem is that we have studies. I could, I could, you know, tell you the citation right now. Warren's David was the author. It was in nature 2014. And it was quite clear when you ate that meat, the antibiotics were showing up in your gut. Right. So, I mean, that's just two examples. And between those two things, I've described basically 90% of calories.
tyson (49:41.447)
Thanks for watching!
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (50:08.702)
And what's left is 10% and that 10% are the fiber containing foods. But the problem is that we're not really truly eating the fiber containing foods. We're eating French fries. Right. So like if we're going to eat plants, let's really eat plants. Let's eat, let's eat plants. Let's enjoy them. Let's eat them in variety and abundance. This is not a claim to veganism. This is a claim to trying to expand that 10% and make it more. Um, so that's just diet, you know,
Uh, people played outside. They were creative in the way that they played. They were social in the way that they played. It wasn't a video game. You weren't just walking in and staring at a screen. Um, they were, they were physical. They were active. Um, you didn't even have a car. Most people. Right. So you walked a lot more. Um, you know, the, the differences in the States at least between walking to school.
by the generation are staggering. My parents' generation, almost everyone walked to school. My generation, it was substantially less, but still quite a few of us. I used to walk to school when I was a kid. And now almost no one does, almost no one. So they're less physically active. And then think about sleep. Staying up late, watching TV, bright screens, or like on your tablet or your computer, bright screens.
tyson (51:20.696)
Yeah.
Yeah.
tyson (51:32.694)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (51:36.814)
which completely disrupts your circadian rhythm, going to bed at two in the morning, and then waking up whenever, depending on what stage of life you are, we can go on all day. I know the listeners right now are thinking like, yeah, what about this? And what about that? Like there's just so much that has changed in the last 100 years.
tyson (51:57.568)
Yeah, it's wild. Yeah, exactly right. It fears us though. And I know it is a conversation that you've been having for years, but you could talk for hours and hours and still just be scratching the surface of these conversations. But I've seen those photos even as late as, I wanna say maybe the 1950s, maybe even the 1970s. Maybe that's pushing it a little bit. But you see the average photos of a population on like those sunny beaches where everyone's out and about, or it doesn't even have to be the beach photos. I saw some footage that was taken
in London back in 1930s the other day. And it was just sort of scanning around a really busy street. And it was so noticeable that everyone was, I don't know if they had six packs because they had their clothes on, but they were relatively in shape. Like there was no morbidly obese people. There was no one who looked.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (52:40.582)
It is shocking. Yes, it is shocking. And, um, actually here in the States, so, you know, where we are today, um, is about 75% of Americans are overweight. So only 25% would qualify as being a normal weight. Um, and about 40%, close to 50% are obese. Um,
And it's, and it's shocking because if you were to go back to the late seventies, you nailed it. It's, it's like the sixties, this problem did not exist. And if we were to go back to the late seventies, it basically didn't exist and it took off and, um, and it's taken off at a pace that's, um, that's disturbing because also it's not just us, the adults, it's our kids, you know, and the, and the increase in childhood obesity and the increase of childhood
tyson (53:28.763)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (53:34.098)
type 2 diabetes and other issues around that. So yeah, these are challenges that we have to grapple with, I think.
tyson (53:44.871)
Yeah, I even look at myself in the 90s. I've always been interested in health, but as a young guy, I didn't really scratch the surface. I would just trust whatever the packet, which is probably the first giveaway, the packet that I was buying had to say about the particular food. And I looked at the food that I lived on and it was fruit cereals, which were 97% fat-free, and it was fruit yogurts, which were 99% fat-free, and it was fruit bars, and it was muesli bars and juices. And I look back and I mean, I've got a couple of teeth taken out to prove it.
I haven't had a filling for sort of 15 years after some real dramatic changes, but I was oblivious to the fact that I was eating terrible foods that were packed with sugar and had next to, I would say probably zero nutritional value. I mean, the foods that I was eating, you just had to look at the back of the pack and you realize, oh, this is just a bowl of sugar, but it's naturally fairly fat free. I was lucky to, I mean, not to stack on the weight because I was a really active kid, but it...
It is mind blowing just how quickly that scene changed. Yeah, from the 70s to the 90s, even people like me who thought I was relatively on the ball with health and wellbeing was probably eating one of the unhealthiest diets out of everyone in my friendship group who had no focus on the food that they were eating.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (55:01.258)
I was born in 1980 and I think that the 80s were a period of time where these new ultra processed foods really hit the market and the food industry, you know, this was a boon for them. I mean, think about how much space this takes up in your supermarket. So there was this tremendous opportunity and basically they were competing to get you to buy their product. They still do. And the way that you compete is by like basically creating a flavor that brings you back because you need more.
Right? So, and it's, um, it's being engineered to like hack our brain in a bad way. And so, yeah, so I grew up quite similar to you. I grew up, you know, drinking sugary beverages and eating, uh, like processed meats, like three times a day. And, um, and I had a horrible diet. And then for me, you know, I don't know if you knew this about me, but. About 10 years ago, I had a health crisis.
And cause I was always young and healthy myself or I was young and I was young and athletic, so I was skinny, um, cause I played three sports and, um, and, and as I like, uh, worked towards becoming a doctor, which took me a long time. I made sacrifices in terms of my physical activity, but my diet was trash. And, uh, and in my early thirties, I had a health crisis and I was 20 kilos
tyson (56:05.344)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (56:29.614)
and tons of anxiety, supremely low self-esteem, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a lot of also like gut symptoms. And I tried to exercise my way out of it. So we're on like, we are sort of broadly on the topic of actionable tips. Okay, I want to talk about exercise in a moment, but let me start by saying this exercise alone did not get the job done.
I had to change my diet. And I do think that's part of the story is like, um, it's not just a high fiber diet, it's elevating dietary quality. Right? So if you're an omnivore, let's get better quality meat. And if you consume dairy, higher quality dairy, right? And when it comes to plants, let's do better than French fries, please. So, um,
tyson (57:24.21)
Hehehehe, yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (57:27.658)
Anyway, but exercise though, when you come, when you pair exercise with a better diet, actually they synergize together. And the reason why is that actually exercise it's quite fascinating. We'll cause a shift in our microbiome and the type of exercise that you do matters too, it's not just like, Hey, I exercise and therefore here's what happens. Um, so they did a study with a rugby team in Ireland.
And discovered that the benefit of strength training was that it gave them more of the friendly probiotic bacteria that help us to produce what are called short chain fatty acids, which are the most anti-inflammatory things out there. And we get them from our gut. All right. So that's what they got. Now, why would we want short chain fatty acids if we're doing strength type training?
tyson (58:13.767)
Huh.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (58:26.742)
Strength training is actually quite inflammatory. This is the reason why you get sore.
having an anti-inflammatory effect within the gut helps you to balance that out and combat that. So it can help with recovery and it preserves muscle mass. So, but the quite interesting thing though, Tyson, is that they also looked at endurance runners. So like this is a totally different type of exercise. Now let's look at people who run marathons and they analyze their microbiome and they discovered that the people who run marathons
They have a unique microbiome also. They have bacteria that help to break down lactic acid. All right, what's the deal with that? Well, lactic acid is what builds up in your muscles and causes muscle fatigue. If you're an endurance runner, you want the ability to break down lactic acid because then you can run further and faster.
The microbiome is helping to facilitate that. So in both cases with exercise. So I mentioned earlier, like eating a diversity of plants. Now I'm saying let's do the diversity of exercises. Do some, do some distance running, do some sprints, do some weights. Um, but in, in both cases, um, it's not just food that affects our microbiome. It's also these choices that we make in terms of our lifestyle.
tyson (59:36.415)
Yeah, yeah.
tyson (59:49.855)
Yeah, I mean, this is that broad thing zoned down to the micro again, but it's so interesting how, and I've noticed this with myself, as I said before, I grew up on high sugar cereals and every day it was the food that I craved and naturally as I steered away from that, now just like a bowl of plain oats is fine for me. It's interesting with the exercise factor as well, because I'm just thinking of the audience right now and I can imagine there'd be people who are overweight, unfit, terrible diets going, oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed.
I feel like the hope-filled aspect of your message, which just so clearly stands out to me every time I hear you speak, is that with practical steps, yeah, sure, like the habit-forming part of anything is gonna be the most difficult phase, and it's gonna be hard initially to make changes, whether it's to diet, sleep, exercise, whatever else it is, but over time, consistency, it's like whether it's your actual stomach or whether it's your actual body or mind, you start to crave the things you feed it, and for me, I'm a perfect example of that. Like I...
I'm not a nice person, I don't think, or at least not as nice as I could be when I haven't got my daily dose of exercise. We've got like this in-joke at our house where if I'm in a bad mood, my wife's like, go for a run or go to the gym. Like I just, I don't, you get out please for everyone's benefit. And I come back, it happened this morning, I came back 45 minutes on the elliptical and I felt like a better bloke and I think she could see it. But I guess it correct me if I'm, huh.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:00:59.554)
Get out here. Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:01:12.258)
You know, that's actually been well proven though. That's been well proven that exercise elevates mood. That's been well proven that exercise, but also mood is affected by our microbes. And there are researchers, an example of this is the Food and Mood Center at Deakin University, Professor Felice Jaka, where they're conducting clinical trials. And,
tyson (01:01:18.351)
That does not surprise me at all.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:01:42.114)
basically like changing people's diet towards an anti-inflammatory diet. And then treating like basically like improving mood disorders in the process of doing this. So, you know, you would never think that your mood is in any way related to your physical activity or to exercise or to sunlight exposure, right? But all of these things are connected, not just your mood, they're also connected to your microbes.
tyson (01:02:11.271)
Yeah, yeah, man, I've got my eye on the clock and I know we're a little limited for time. I'm not gonna take up your whole evening or afternoon, but I was curious to pick your brain a little bit because I had heard that you'd, I can't remember where, I think you said January the 15th, your new product was gonna launch, or have I made it up that date? You guys had some supplement which was coming out, which I'm excited to hear was made here in Melbourne. I mean.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:02:34.646)
Yeah, yeah, so it's going to be mid January for sure. Regardless of when this is released, people can come to our website. Our company is called 38terra. And what that refers to, by the way, the product is called Daily Microbiome Nutrition. So if you go to 38terra.com, you can learn more. The story here is that...
tyson (01:02:39.844)
Yeah.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:03:00.49)
If you ever came to see me in the clinic, there was about a 95% chance that I would recommend a fiber supplement. And that's not because I think that fiber supplements are a replacement for our diet. I think our diet needs to come first. But time and time and time again, I have witnessed firsthand the healing effects of the fiber supplement for people, whether they're on a low fiber diet or even people who are on a high fiber diet, they still get benefits. I myself have been taking them for years. The issue that I always had.
is that I always felt like I could create something much better for these people who have specific goals in mind than the generic stuff that's available at the store. And the other thing that I always worried about is, you know, getting back to the glyphosate question. I never knew whether the products that I was advising my patients to use were clean.
tyson (01:03:43.137)
Hmm.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:03:56.822)
Cause I was not involved in that process and there's just no way to know. There's no transparency. So I felt like, you know, there's this opportunity to create something that actually can really help people, um, coming from my perspective as a gastroenterologist, any gut health expert to actually like, like basically formulate the supplement that I would want for my own patients.
So that's what I did. And it's called daily microbiome nutrition. It's a beverage. It's berry flavored. It's easy. It travels well. You do it once a day and in there, the formula comes from seven unique plants, some of which originate in Australia, but like truly this, these plants have been curated from around the globe for their specific properties. Like we have stuff from Finland. We have stuff from Africa, from the U S so across the globe.
because they have beneficial effects for the microbiome. Resistant starch, which is like a better form of fiber, fiber and polyphenols. These are the three types of what we call prebiotics. And this product is basically designed to have all of them. The other thing that was really important to me is that one of the things that I never liked about the options that I had available to me is like,
Can we, can we get some studies please? Like I would like to see studies on humans showing me what this product does. And so the beauty of this is like, I actually selected the ingredients myself because several of the ingredients have human clinical trials to say, when you use this for four weeks, here's what happens. It increases, like it improves your gut microbiome. It increases the special bacteria that we want more of.
tyson (01:05:23.547)
Hmm
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:05:48.246)
It makes people poop better. If you have diarrhea or constipation improves that it reduces gut symptoms. Um, so, and then the last thing I'll add real quick that I'm excited about is, uh, you know, again, I come at this as a gastroenterologist. So, you know, I'm thinking about the people out there who have gut issues. And they need something. It's not so easy to just say, go eat a salad. Like those people, it's hard for them to do that. They need something. So, um, this product was uniquely like.
This was my specific goal the whole time. The product was, was developed to be low FODMAP. So basically what that means is if you have gut issues, this will be gentle on your gut yet simultaneously, you are not sacrificing in any way. The efficacy of the product, it is designed to work and to be highly effective. It just isn't going to force you to feel unwell when you take it. So, um, anyway, so I'm pumped. And, uh, for the first time we'll be sharing it with the world in mid January, 38 Tera.
tyson (01:06:45.607)
Man, exciting times. That's awesome. I'll make sure for anyone interested, it's all gonna be connected down in the show notes to this episode. But man, I'm gonna love you and leave you, despite the fact that I've got about 407 other questions that I could throw at you. But for the sake of my family and yours, let's hit pause on the conversation for now. But man, really so grateful that you made the time to stop by and have a chat. The message that you shared, so inspiring, so encouraging, and one that I personally have benefited so much from.
Thanks for the work you're doing brother and yeah thanks again for stopping by.
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:07:18.806)
Thank you brother. Thank you for having me. And for anyone who's interested, you can find me on social media as the gut health MD and then my website, is the plant fed.com and, um, uh, would love to see and connect with anyone who's interested. Thanks Tyson.
tyson (01:07:33.851)
Thanks a lot, man. Cheers. Dude, awesome. That was heaps of fun, man. Sorry we went a little bit over time. I had one...
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (01:07:40.189)
Oh dude I-