Look and Feel Radiant: The Skin & Wellness Show
Today I am speaking with Dr.Philip Robert Mach, functional practitioner and a health coach. https://livefunctionally.com/
When looking in the mirror you notice a vibrant, glowing face staring back at you. This isn't a dream—it's possible with the right habits. Let's listen
Transcript
Welcome to another episode of what's your face Story. Well, we all know no one wants to age, not voluntarily. Today's guest, Dr.
Phil Mack, a functional medicine practitioner and a coach, health coach, is going to lead us through the health of the gut and its reflection on our skin.
Speaker B:As you know, whatever goes on on the outside is a reflection of what's going on on the inside.
Speaker A:Everyone is talking about nutrition, nutrition, nutrition, and more nutrition. Does the nutrition need change with the time? Do we need more after 50, or do we need a different version of those nutrients after 50?
Speaker B:Well, good question. Certainly, as we get older, we have less acid production.
And the acid production in the stomach helps us to break down certain things, particularly proteins. And so we may need more acid. There are ways that we can check and see if we have enough acid.
One of the tests that I use is called a baking soda test, where you can actually use baking soda to see if you're producing enough acid.
The other thing is that many, many people are taking acid blockers which are suppressing the amount of acid that we are using in our stomach, and therefore they're not digesting what they're eating. So there are things such as digestive enzymes or acid that we may need to add in order to help us digest our food.
A baking soda test is where you add a little bit of baking soda and water and you're able to see if you're producing enough acid after five or ten minutes to see if you're having belching. And that would tell you if you have enough acid in your stomach.
There may be things that you can do in order to add acid to your system for one of the things that I recommend to my clients is to use apple cider vinegar before meals to help with acid production. Take time to bless their food, which would also help to increase saliva.
And the other thing they can do is they can chew their food very well to make sure that they're assimilating and helping to break down the food.
Speaker A:Right, the mindful eating, for sure, that's important.
Speaker B:The other thing is, that's important is, you know, how are we breaking down our fats? Many, many people, as they get older, their production of bile, which is produced in the liver, is not working and not breaking down fats.
So that's another thing we have to look at to see how we're processing our fats.
Speaker A:Interesting. So is there any cheat test we can do to know?
Speaker B:There's something called a fat bomb test which, where you, you make a fat bomb with healthy oils and See how you are reacting after 15 or 20 minutes to see if you have any symptoms. And then you know that you're not producing your acid, you're not. You're not producing enough bile and you're not digesting your fats.
So, yeah, there are specific tests that we can do in order to detect that. But many people do have to take enzymes, whether digestive enzymes or even bile in certain forms to help them break down fat.
Speaker A:So would you feel uncomfortable after 15 minutes if you don't break down the fat?
Speaker B:You would feel uncomfortable after 15 or 20 minutes if you weren't able to digest those fats. You might have gas, you might have pain or discomfort or bloating.
Speaker A:And then the apple cider vinegar, would it help there too, or no?
Speaker B:It might actually, the apple cider vinegar could help you, but that's for different, different reason. There are certain things that we may need to do.
We may need to improve the health of the liver, or we may need to add digestive enzymes or bile in order to help break down fats.
Speaker A:When you're not breaking the fats, it's more serious because that will affect the liver eventually.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So that's why we need someone like you to guide us on what to do.
Speaker B:Right.
And the other thing we can do is if we're eating a lot of processed foods and unhealthy fats, you'll see when you go to the bathroom, you'll see a lot of fat globules in your stool. So that may be another way that we can tell if we're not processing our fats.
Speaker A:That's perfect. So. So where we can take care of the stomach acid on our own, we can't really do much about the other problems.
So that's why it's good to have someone like yourself in our phone and just be able to text you and ask for consultation or other things that you would recommend. We will mention this number at the end of the show.
And for now, let's just keep connecting the dots, starting from the gut health, nutrition to our skin and aging.
Speaker B:We need acid to break down proteins in our stomach. We need healthy enzymes and healthy bile production to break down fats in our intestines.
And then we want to make sure that everything is going through at a smooth rate.
We want to make sure that we're having a good stool production so that everything is coming out because we don't want the stool to kind of hang around because when it does, you get more toxin production and therefore things don't get digested properly.
The other thing is that when we are eating a lot of processed foods, what happens is that it creates inflammation and it creates what we call holes in our gut and we get what's called a leaky gut.
And so what happens is instead of absorbing everything, everything kind of leaks through and goes into the systemic circulation and creates problems like systemic inflammation and can lead to autoimmunity and some other types of problems. It can also affect our brain health and our, our thinking.
So it's really important to minimize or try to not have a lot of processed foods because it can really affect our gut health and it can affect our skin health. So the answer to your question is yes, we should be able to get the nutrients that we need from our foods.
But if we're not absorbing our food or if the food's been processed, we're not going to get the nutrients we need. Now, obviously, leafy greens and things of that nature are important.
We want to eat things, the rainbow, different colors when we're eating, we want to have a lot of vegetables that are non starchy. We want to certainly make sure that we have timing between our meals so that we're able to allow digestion to occur.
Because if we're continually grazing from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed, we're not allowing our stomach and our system to process the nutrients.
Speaker A:You know what came to my mind, I was reading about purple foods. We should be eating purple foods for hormones. Is that true?
Speaker B:Well, there are many, many things that people say out there and we get a lot of information on the Internet. Purple foods is one of the colors. So, you know, it's certainly. There are certain, what we call phytonutrients that we get from certain colors.
You know, whether it be red or orange or green or yellow. And we, we say to people we want to eat the rainbow and so we want to eat a variety of colors.
Purples are good because they have different types of antioxidants that are important, but so are reds and oranges and greens and other things. And so there are certain types of foods that we call superfoods that are important and that we derive.
Speaker A:That's perfect. Thank you for bringing this up. That we are working so hard on doing our research online and then we find out we were duped.
Okay, so, so yes, so we, I'm so happy that we have you on the show. And then we will have the contact information for you as well, so we can continue the relationship. So let's go Back to the aging.
It's not just about the skin. It's about the posture, the, the, the vibrancy of the cells within the body.
So in, in order for us to feel healthy, feel younger, do we need to add anything else other than nutrients to our foods, supplements?
Speaker B:Okay, good question. So I think we have to look at one of the most important things in our body, which is the microbes in our system.
There's a microbe system in our gut, there's a microbe system on our skin. And generally what goes on on the inside is a reflection of what's going on on the outside. So we have to take care of the microbes.
And if we don't eat the right foods, then these microbes are going to be imbalanced, and we're going to get more bad microbes than good microbes, and it's going to cause an imbalance in the system. And the thing is, we need to eat certain types of foods that can help our microbes, certainly healthy fats. We need to have adequate protein.
And certain types of foods, like ferments are important. Things like kimchi or sauerkraut are fermented. Now, not everybody can tolerate them, but, but fermented foods are a good thing to eat in your diet.
And if you're not familiar with these fermented foods, it's important to start a little bit at a time to see how you tolerate them. So that's one thing.
The other thing is that some people say that you can take probiotics, and there's a variety of probiotics that are on the market, and you want to take the one that's right for you. The. There are certain tests that we can take in order to find out which microbes we have.
So we may have to add different types of microbes to our system. We may have to add things like short chain fatty acids or butyrate. It really depends.
Everybody's different as far as what they need specifically to help them with their gut.
And if they have a situation where they've been eating processed foods and they're drinking alcohol and they're doing different things, then it's kind of we need to heal what we have before we can put these other types of microbes into our system.
So it's really a process of healing the gut, taking care of any kind of infection, then we can maybe add some ferments and some different types of probiotics. And then we need to add different types of lifestyle factors so we make sure that everything is intact.
And we are able to implement things like sleep and drinking enough water and having social connections. So all these things are really important to your overall health.
And then once we do that, then the idea will be that we can age gracefully, that our skin is going to be glowing. And we find that the these things are what we need to do in order to have longevity.
You want glowing skin, look to the inside and then the outside will thank you. And as far as our energy levels are concerned, as far as our mental focus is concerned, a lot of it boils down to the health of the gut.
Speaker A:Yes. So supplements, can you run down through supplements that will give us the energy, give us the boost of youthful energy? Coenzyme Q10?
I know one of them. Yes.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, there are certain supplements that people can take. I mean, ideally you want to get things from food, you want to make sure you're absorbing things because no supplement is going to replace a diet.
But I feel that at least, you know, some of the most basic things that people can add are a good multivitamin, some pharmaceutical grade, a good grade of fish oil with DHA and epa, and also maybe a B vitamin, magnesium and zinc. Those are pretty much a lot of the essentials that I recommend to my clients.
But I try to get them to work on their gut health, I try to get them to work on their lifestyle factors, make sure they're sleeping, make sure they're hydrating, and, you know, just looking at different things along those lines in order to completely, you know, have better health. And also exercise is important too, because that actually helps to shape our microbes as well.
And so exercise every day or some sort of movement activity is important with your overall gut health and that also will reflect in your skin health too.
Speaker A:But even a few minutes a day of swinging the arms and moving the lymph around, it's going to be really good enough to just keep you going until you have the time to go out and walk on the outside or go to the gym for that matter?
Speaker B:Yes, absolutely. In fact, I'm offering for your listeners a free ale bioscan, which looks at over 500 markers and can actually tell you what's going on in the inside.
It's totally non invasive.
-:Now, one other thing I should mention.
And you know, we all are exposed to stress, but stress management is also important and a key to our gut health as well, because it can regulate or affect our hormones. And so we want to try to manage our stress with sleep with some form of winding down at night, whether it be meditation or deep breathing.
And I just wanted to add that as part of gut health.
Speaker A:Very good. So I'm very excited for everyone to get this test.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you'll get a free printout that'll have all the different things.
And then what I'll do is take the time to go over it and you'll get a free checklist of where you need to go. And then if we want to work further and dig deeper, then we can work on that as well.
Speaker A: AO scan, the word AO scan is:And we are going to definitely look forward to that link that you're going to send us back.
Speaker B:Yes. Thank you very much, Yolanda. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for listening and we'll see you in the next episode.
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