Gut Health, Pt. 1 - Dr. Robert Silverman

We are a little under 5% of the world's population, yet we use 52% of the world's drugs. 80% of the pain opiates are here. The average American, 70% of Americans now, take at least one prescription drug. Do 70% of Americans take a grain drink? Do 70% of Americans eat organic food? Do they take antibiotics? Did they do 15,000 steps today? No.

Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness podcast and interview series. This is your host, Eric Melzone, and this is episode number 90. I get to talk to Dr. Robert Silverman. He is out of Westchester, New York, and he is the founder and lead practitioner for Westchester Integrative Health. And he does a lot. He's a very, very smart guy, very, very well renowned. And he's worked with a lot of patients. And he's got books. He's got public speaking. He's just the full package when it comes to health. And the topic that we really focused in on for this particular episode is gut health, right? It is a very interesting field that is evolving very fast. There's still so little that we know about gut biomes. And I can tell you from a family that has uh gut issues, uh, it's no fun. It sucks. And, you know, there's a lot of things that you have to be aware of. And all this stuff is really just coming into light, uh, I would say, in the past few decades, if not even in more recently than that. And uh he gives us the stuff more importantly that we can work on as uh fitness professionals that's within our scope of practice and then when to refer out. I think that's a big thing. There are a lot of things that we can do, right, as fitness professionals with our clients uh now that will help them uh with gut health and all of the uh symptoms that come along with it, including depression, anxiety. Uh yeah, a lot of the mental stuff is caused in the gut. And he talks about that connection too. So very high value. It's part one uh of a part two series. We'll have him coming back on the show in the next few months uh because he's awesome. So yeah, without further ado, we'll get on to Dr. Silverman here. And also I want to uh talk to you about the fitness accelerator. So, you know, we're doing it right now. It's happening. It's a network of fitness professionals with the purpose of elevating the fitness industry through better connections. And if you don't think you need better connections, then you don't know the value of connections because uh, you know, the old saying, the your net worth is worth is equal to your your net worth is equal to your network. Uh, it didn't come out of nowhere, you guys. It's true. And uh this is a non-social media platform uh where we are connecting people through the industry. And um, it's what I love to do. You know, I know I have a huge network, you know, uh close to 400 interviews in the past year uh with fitness professionals from all over the globe. And I see connections. That's it. I see connections and uh I love to make them. Uh this just makes it easier for me to do so. So go check it out. It's at fitnessprofessional online.com forward slash fit accelerator. Uh, you can get in there. Um, there's an application uh that's where you'll find it. We are pretty strict on who gets in there. So uh fill out the application, see if you make it. If you do, we'll give you a two-week trial to make sure that it works for you and for us. So once again, fitnessprofessional online.com forward slash fit accelerator. Go check it out today. So without further ado, episode number 90, Dr. Robert Silverman from Westchester Integrated Health. Dr. Robert Silverman, welcome to the show. Pleasure to be here. I'm doing great, man. Better now. And uh, you know, I was like I was telling you before recording, I'm just really excited to talk about this, the topics that you that you dive into because it's so um, in my opinion, but you're you know, you're in it, you're in the thick of it. It's just getting started, right? The understanding of especially the gut biome and where that science is going. It's a really exciting field of science. Um, but you know, science is one thing, putting into practice and working with actual people is another, right? Two two different things. And uh, if you can, I you know, I know you have a very storied background, you you've accomplished quite a bit. Um give us give us a little bit of background yourself, and then we'll dive into the to um some of the topics that we discussed earlier.

Well, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it, and I'm happy we got some time to talk now, and we had some time to talk before. Um, I'm a chiropractor. Um, I've been a practicing chiropractor for about 19 years. So my origins is in chiropractic. I'm what you call a mixer chiropractor, in that I mix modalities. I've used STEM. Uh right now I'm heavy into low-level laser. FDA clear laser has done a great, great, great job. I do a lot of functional movement assessments in the chiropractic side. I still adjust people. A lot of exercise rehab, full rehab, 350 foot square rehab room that I do a lot of exercise rehab, a lot of nerve entrapment work, a lot of instrument assistance, soft tissue mobilizations, the factors of the world, the rastens of the world, the different type of taping, whether it's just kinesio tape, rock tape, or now I use a lot of performance health, theraband tape. So all that I mix in, and then I have my nutrition side. So I have nutrition for sports injury, my nutrition for sports performance, musculoskeletal nutrition, and as you know, a lot of functional medicine nutrition, which is really sort of going to be the highlight of what I'm doing now. So when people say, What do you do? I'm a guy that without question wants to uh uh stretch your genetic limits as much as I can. I want everybody to live to 120 years old, and I always want everybody to fix the body from the inside out. So a couple other things I've done, about 250 published articles, 50 uh different TV appearances, Amazon best-selling uh book, Inside Out Health Revolutionary Approach to Your Body. And I was fortunate enough. Um, I know my mom wrote this for me, uh, 2015 Sports Chiropractor of the Year.

Awesome, awesome, man. Awesome back up. Yeah, yeah. Uh that's fantastic. So um, you know, I think a good place to start because there's so many questions I do have for you. But maybe if we could start to paint the picture of what what kind of the current state is of medicine? You know, I was actually just got off another interview um recording and we talked about, you know, um the lack of personal responsibility that goes into one's health nowadays, you know, is is a big factor. But you know, where what's the current state of of health? I mean, we all know it, especially living in America, that's you know, chronic disease, obesity. What's the problem that we're facing now?

Well, the problem is, and to really pick it back on what you started to say was people don't value their health enough. Yeah. It's unfortunate. They don't understand it's the most valuable asset. And it's true, they are their own responsible doctor for their health. And somewhere along the line, Americans decided not to take care of their health. Now, they haven't been helped by a lot of environmental toxins, a lot of poor decisions that the government have made towards health and health care. Most people think insurance is health care, and I'll tell them taking care of themselves. So, some easy things to remember. So let's throw it right out there: 15,000 steps a day. Better choices in meals. So let me give you a few quick things. GPS. Listen to my GPS of health. No gluten, no processed food, no sugar. Take care of your DNA, no dairy, no nicotine, no artificial sweeteners. It's just that simple. And as you said, people are heavy now. So we have something called we live in the United States of diabetes. The combination, parallel growth of obesity and diabetes together. And it's really started to occur since the 70s when Americans decided or were told by the government that carbohydrates were okay and fat was a faux. Fat isn't a faux, fat is your friend, it's a critical element. Every kind of fat but trans fat. So we've had this um conundrum and calamity of things going together, and people without question need to start getting more involved in their own health because it's their most valuable asset.

Yeah, it's so interesting. I I so I'm 41. Um, I was a chubby kid from eight, probably like seven to twelve years old. And that was right in the time frame when the low fat, no fat creatures coming into play, right? I remember distinctly, and it's all my all my siblings crack up when I talk about this, but at one point my mom stopped giving me Twinkies and she started giving me Twinkies light because it was low fat, right? And uh then entlins came on. Remember entomins, right? Oh, I didn't. Oh yeah. So it was like non-fat cakes, right? But it's like three times the sugar. So, but that was the mindset of, and we're still paying the price for that, right? How the mindset came into play of like, oh, if you just stay away from fat, you'll be fine. And uh, you know, it's it's so crazy to see how those repercussions are just taking place now. Um, you mentioned something in in your book too, um, as I perused it of Pharmageddon.

Pharmageddon. Yeah.

Talk to us about that.

Yeah, you try and use these words to catch people's attention, and I caught your farmageddon. 1985, pharmageddon started. The U.S. government allowed pharmaceutical companies to advertise. Since then, we've had this exponential growth in the use of drugs. So let's talk a little bit about that. Interestingly enough, we are a little under 5% of the world's population, yet we use 52% of the world's drugs. 80% of the pain opiates are here. And when you really think about it, the average American, 70% of Americans now take at least one prescription drug. Do 70% of Americans take a green drink? Do 70% of Americans eat organic food? Do they take a biotic? Did they do 15,000 steps today? No. We're a very overly medicated country. We rely on drugs, and that's not including all the over-the-counter stuff that you, I, or anybody else can get, like the non-stereo anti-inflammatories that even Advil is a great example. In 1997, to get back to Pharmageddon, the US government allowed the pharmaceutical companies not to advertise the side effects, and it grew again. So we had different administrations, so it's not one side versus the other, it's the whole thing. And it's obviously we're living in a part where uh the pharmaceutical companies have free reign, and people like you and I, I don't know if you want to call us life hackers, biohackers. I have my own word. I call guys like you and I health hackers. We want to hack into the health and share it with everybody. Um, it's a major problem. I ask people why they take the drug. And I'm not anti-drug. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not anti-drug. I just think when we use this as a prophylactic answer, lack antibiotic, great example, it poses a problem for our overall health. And that's truly not what doctors go to school for and what they want to do, at least the doctors that I affiliate and associate with.

Yeah, yeah. So I think it's it's pretty obvious. I mean, if you've been in this country for more than a year and just been seeing things, like the it's it's obvious, right? The health issues are obvious. Um, you see the numbers, they even just the numbers you mentioned in this podcast are staggering to really if you really sit and digest them, like what does that mean for the health of this country, for the health of the Western societies? So we we know the problem. You know, if you don't know the problem, just look around. What what's how do we start on the solution? And I think um, you know, I want to come at this from a different couple different ways because there's so many different ways we could do it, but um understanding the gut biome, right? And and where that's coming into play, because uh it's such a fascinating field because we it's so it's it's such a big area of of study or it's becoming bigger, but we know so little about it. And uh, you know, just the amount of of neurons in the gut compared to the brain, right? If people even just knew that. So let's dive into some of your knowledge on on the gut biome and and what you found out and where do you see all this going and how can the average person utilize your knowledge?

I appreciate that. So let's start with with the gut right in here. 80% of our immune cells are in our gut. So I ask all my patients, what have you done for your guts lately? Be healthy. Take care of your gut. Your gut is where your macro and micronutrients are absorbed. Your vitamins, minerals, your macros, your foods, all these things. So gut health is a critical example of overall health. Now, you mentioned nerves. That was great. Well, your gut is your second brain because there's something called a gut-to-brain axis. Your gut is so important to your body's overall health, it has its own nervous system. It's called the enteric nervous system. Now, gut health is is critical, but it's the bacteria in our gut that's really going to determine how healthy our gut is. So a lot of people talk about bacteria. Well, there's good bacteria and there's bad bacteria. A great example of bad bacteria would be something like E. coli. So when you say the word, uh like lactobacillus, something that they try and sell you in your so our bacteria is a critical element to the overall health of our gut. Now, our gut length, if you unraveled it, is the length of a tennis court with the thickness of a paper towel. That's fair. So it's so easy to perforate. It's make more than semi-permeable to make into permeable. Those pose an issue because if something passes your gut and it's right here, wait, hold it, and it's right here, and it passes, it goes in and it goes into your bloodstream because your body's all interconnected. So, what passes through your gut that shouldn't, like proteins, viruses, microbes, pose an issue, and that leads you on a path towards autoimmunity and increased levels of systemic inflammation. So clearly we don't want that. So that's a little bit of an overview. What damages your gut? Non-steroid anti-inflammatories leading to advil, ibuprofen, poor diet, sugar, gluten. Gluten means glue. It sticks to your intestinal tract. Doesn't matter if you have celiac disease, doesn't matter if you have uh sensitivity, gluten means glue, processed foods, bad nutrients, stress. As someone like me who's a type A personality, if you really get me going, I'll feel it in your gut. You know when people used to say gut feeling? Well, they didn't know what they were saying, but they were really depicting something thousands of years ago. Some other things that'll damage your gut that are interesting are now the lectins. If you're allergic to lectins, that's huge now. That's something you didn't even read in my book that's come to the forefront. Lectins, if you're allergic to it, damage your gut and cause tissue damage, joint binding tissue damage. So all these things can lead towards adverse gut health. So number one thing I have everybody come in is take care of their gut health.

Yeah. And what are lectins? Doctor, explain those to us.

Lectins are interesting, and lectins come actually from legumes. Yeah. So legumes, lectins are also in some other foods, but lectins have two specific um uh the lectins have a couple of byproducts. And unfortunately, these lectins, interestingly enough, this is now the rage in the conversation. They're able to pass your gut and get through your gut, and what they do is the lectin actually binds to tissues. So when I say that, they can bind to an organ, they combine to a joint. And that's when you get the joint damage from a lectin, and that's the problem. Lectins are things that are in like a spinach or chard. So they're were made there to keep other organisms from eating that. Unfortunately, when they're unleashed on us and they unravel in our intestinal tract, they're gonna start an inflammatory autoimmune process.

Yeah. So, you know, I I so many times, you know, the dogma is a big deal in the nutritional world, right? You got the paleo versus the the keto versus the um, you know, the vegan, and and everybody has this dogmatic approach to it. Um, you know, like I I would hear a lot of people who are saying what you're saying, and you know, hear what you're saying about lectins, and they would say, well, you know, what if my culture, my wife's Brazilian, you know, they ate lectins all the time, right? You know, she doesn't seem to have an issue with it, but maybe she does, you know, maybe it's culturally wide. You know, how much uh of this kind of stuff comes from, you know, just your background, your ancestry, um, versus like just you know, standard human status quo, right? Like what how much is is nature versus nurture, I guess, is is the question.

Great question. So gluten, and the reason that gluten is so bad. So before I even go into detail, let me let me go on a record and say this.

Yeah, please.

No dairy. Not necessarily no lectins. If you're allergic to lectins, which a small percentage of the population is, then no lectins. Otherwise, you can eat lactins. Now, that's contrary to one of a book that's out there, very popular book. But what we're seeing in the testing is you can consume a lectin if you're not allergic to it. You cannot consume any kind of gluten or dairy, whether you're allergic to it or not. So they're much more deleterious to your overall health. But to speak to what you're saying, here we've hybridly something like gluten, and that poses the problem by hybridlyzing and exposing it to chemicals in the soil, like a Roundup, which has a glyphosate as a main ingredient, and glyphosate has been called by the World Health Organization of Cancer-Causing Property. We've changed the the uh sequence of the gluten. And the dairy, of course, is a problem. And the same thing with some of the lectins in the foods. We're damaging our foods. We have gen genetically modified organisms, things of that nature. The fact of the matter is I can get people off gluten. Dairy's a fight, but they're never gonna give up their lectins. There's there are ethnic groups that are gonna eat rice and beans, things of that nature, and that's it, game over. So deal with it. Figure it out.

Right, right. Yeah, you know, I want to get into a personal anecdote too, because um, you know, my mom has gut issues. My brother is celiac. Um, I've had a ton of um gut issues. There was 2016 I went through a very difficult time between work and and personal and very, very stressful. And it all uh manifested into gut issues. I had a candida overgrowth. Um, every day was miserable. And I look back and I'm so fortunate that I'm healthier now, but it was a long recovery. You know, gut issues don't they don't just go away overnight. And uh, you know, one of the things I I've talked to people, and now I can since I've gone through and I'm aware of it and I can help identify things. But one thing people don't understand is when you have gut issues, something hits your gut, everything changes. Your emotions, your mindset, your energy level, and almost like a flip of a switch, you know, you can you can really your day can go down the shitter really fast, you know. And I think most people are flying around, they don't they don't recognize that it's happening when it's so insidious in their system. What are some of the factors that people, you know, people are listening like, oh geez, maybe I have uh I have some leaky gut issues, or what are some of the symptoms that people need to start looking for?

Gas and bloating. Yeah. Great symptom of what you just said is change in mood. Yeah. There's a direct correlation between your gut bacteria and your mood, and that really speaks to the gut-to-brain axis. So many people now, so many psychiatrists now are really talking about psychobiotics, the combination of prebiotics and probiotics to help your um your state. So mood is a definite uh issue. Gaining a lot of weight quick, losing weight quick is a problem because you're not absorbing. So if you're not absorbing and you're not eating that much, you're gonna lose weight. If you're not absorbing and you constantly are hungry and you want to eat, there's something wrong with your gut. Compromised immune system. Major problem. Autoimmune system, autoimmune stuff like joint issues, skin, like psoriasis. 50% of the people that have something called spondylar arthritis, which is a joint issue. Joint arthritis have a direct correlation to a gut issue. So there's that direct relationship. As you have on the leveling of gut bacteria, you have an increase in joint dysfunction. And the reverse is true. So myself as a chiropractor, when people come in and say my back hurts, my shoulder hurts, I'm gonna say, okay, I'm gonna look at that, I'm gonna tend to that, but if I don't fix you and look at your gut and the whole you, I'm never gonna get you clinical outcome. So remember, symptoms, thousands of symptoms, systems, up to 14 systems of the body. If you go to a doctor who takes the symptoms to fix the systems, you're going to the right doctor. We call that somebody who is attempting to get to root cause resolution.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of the people listening on the show, Doctor, will be uh most professionals. So uh personal trainers, online coaches, um, gym owners, things like that. What can this, you know, and and oftentimes they're the front lines, right? They're the ones who are getting the most access uh most of the time. You know, uh, the most time with people, even though it may be two to three hours a week, it's still more than a doctor would get or anybody else in the medical field. How do you educate this group of people and have them elevate and and also understand their scope of practice? Like where, where, you know, how can they start identifying with their clients? And then so that's part that's part one of my question is what's the scope of practice? How do you start incorporating more knowledge and that? And then I'll get into part two after that.

Sure. Well, number one is anybody can talk about diet. So again, adhere to the GPS and the DNA, take some of the bad foods out, take some of the trans foods out, and then start suggesting good, healthy foods, uh foods that are high in prebiotics, kombucha, cabbage, ridiculo, things of that nature. Make suggestions on changing uh dietary things, you know, organic or farmed, uh farmed to table versus the processed food. Real big things. Get rid of those sugary carbohydrates. Let's talk about what I like to refer to as the fatty fruits, avocado, coconut, olives, things of that nature. Start talking about oils to use. So for instance, everybody uh I hate to say this, uh Whole Foods uses a lot of canola oil. Don't eat anything that's been cooked with canola oil. Canola oils from rapeseed oil, it's no bueno. It's just simply no bueno. So subtle things like that can really help the clients, and that's entry level for them. Real simple. As a matter of fact, so many of my trainers come to my different lectures looking for just dietary information. Uh uh, in that information, they're looking for lists, recipes. Take them off the whey protein now, get them to the pea and rice protein. Things like that.

Yeah, yeah. And where where are you located physically, Doctor?

I am in White Plains, New York. I'm 30 minutes outside of New York City. My name of my uh my facility is Westchester Integrative Health. Uh, anybody can look me up, drrobertSilverman.com, follow me on Facebook, uh DR Robert Silverman, and uh so everybody knows that when they download this podcast in a few uh within the next few months, you'll see uh Eric on my webcast. Because we're gonna get a date going on over here and we're gonna turn the tables a little bit and then we'll start uh doing a little Jeopardy questions with him. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's um I I want to know the reason I asked that, and we'll we'll use that part as well. But I I I know people who aren't within like an hour of you, let's say people want to find out a fitness professional I'm listening, and I want to find out, okay, how can I find a Dr. Silverman in my area?

Really easy. You know what you do? I have a tremendous extensive uh outreach because I lecture every weekend. So if you're interested, you can call the office, 914-287-6464, DM me on Facebook, I will answer you, or email me at info at drrobertsilverman.com. That's my personal uh email. You do any one of those, we'll look up somebody for you and we'll help you out. We get a lot from other docs, and we'll always, you know, the bottom line is we're here to help the population of the United States of America get healthier. So if that means taking five minutes to find the right doc that I know, I'm in.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And I think just like the basics that we've covered today for people for trainers is starting to at least maybe start to uh build a thirst for knowledge about gut biome and how that whole plays out. I think we've done uh enough to get started. You know, I think that's that's a huge part of it, is just getting people aware and then start looking for the signs and then having a thirst for knowledge to learn more. And uh yeah, so I I appreciate um you coming on. And and what's your book too?

Remind people Yeah Inside Out Health, a revolutionary approach to the body, and Amazon number one bestseller. It's a great way, it's a nice 200. Yes, it's read to really enable you to look at the body from the inside. So you can't have a healthy outside without health without having a healthy inside.

Yeah.

So it's a good overview of some of the things that we talked about and more. So hopefully, I've from this podcast I've imbued you with some enthusiasm to pick up, read it, and share your views. Call me, talk to me about it. Love to hear.

Awesome. And this guy's listening, this is a huge way to make an impact for your clients. And and uh, you know, everybody, everyone I talk to within the finestry always gets in it because they want to help people. And uh, this is one of the base ways to start helping people. Reps and sets and weights and all that stuff is great. Um, but really the most significant change you can make in people's lives is by by starting here. Um so yeah, Dr. Silverman, thanks for taking the time. I know it's really valuable and uh appreciate you coming in.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Yeah, Dr. Robert Silverman.

See you soon for carry health, any place you have to live.

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