It All Starts With Your Gut: How Your Bacteria & Intestinal Inflammation Affects Your Mood, Health, Longevity & More!

My guest on today's show, Dr. Patrick Hanaway is one of the world's top authorities in the realm of functional medicine.

He is a board-certified family physician with a medical degree from Washington University and residency training at the University of New Mexico.

He is a past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and co-founded Family to Family: Your Home for Whole Family Health with his wife in Asheville, NC.

As an initiated Marakame (Shaman) by the Huichol people in the Sierra Madres of central Mexico, he incorporates these healing approaches in his clinical practice.

From 2002-2012, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Genova Diagnostics, followed by the Director of Medical Education for the Institute for Functional Medicine as well as the Medical Director at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

He just last week published a keystone JAMA article on the improved outcomes of patient care with an integrative functional medicine approach, and in 2017, he won the Linus Pauling Award. Teaching around the world on ‘Good Medicine,’ he brings his full presence to teaching clinicians about healing, with an emphasis on therapeutic relationships, connection, community, and wholeness.

During our discussion, you'll discover: -Dr. Hanaway's background in functional medicine...6:40

• Disillusioned with medical practice in early 1980's
• Books by Jeffrey Bland
• Focus on root cause of disease and why disease occurs
• Other ancestral means of treating disease (Ayurveda, Chinese, Tibetan, etc.)
• Understand the synthesis between various methods of healing/treating disease; incorporate outside means as necessary
• Understand the story, gather information on the patient; emotional shifts are key

-Why Dr. Hanaway is a shaman and how it synchronizes with his practice...11:30

• Huichol people in the Sierra Madre region never indoctrinated with the practices of the church
• Living tradition thousands of years old
• Had series of dreams after connecting with Huichol; went to sacred spot to make offerings
• Began working with Huichol people intermittently; initiated as a healer 8 years into the practice
• "The way of listening" and perceiving emotional/spiritual issues is used for understanding the big picture of a patient's condition

-What makes functional medicine unique...14:45

• Functional medicine is an "operating system"
• Listen to the person's story: precursors, genetics, heritage, emotional triggers, etc.
• Focus on diet and lifestyle
• Initial visit is 2 hrs. to gather info
• Insurance pays for quantity, not quality; not always conducive to functional medicine
• -JAMA Network Article on Functional Health

-Tools and resources Dr. Hanaway often uses in his practice...22:40

• Understand a patient's nutrition: B vitamins, antioxidants
• GiEffects 3 Day Stool Panel by Genova Diagnostics
• Onegevity (Use discount code: BEN20 to receive $20 off your own test.)
• Metagenomics

-Which test is best to get the most accurate results...34:15

• The jury is still out as to which is the best test
• It's not possible to get comprehensive results with just one test.
• Onegevity is the best on the market, according to Dr. Hanaway

-What a test result will reveal, and what steps to take from a functional medicine standpoint to address it...39:00

• Microbiome and inflammation score is high: fish oils, turmeric
• Comprehensive analysis; how does the problematic area fit in with the rest of the body
• Psychobiotics
• Psychobiotics and the Manipulation of Bacteria–Gut–Brain Signals

-Why Dr. Hanaway doesn't begin a diagnosis with the brain...44:15

• Relationship between permeability in the gut and brain permeability
• TBI changes intestinal permeability - increased risk of infection
• Address gut permeability first and foremost
• Gut blood barrier and blood brain barrier can be addressed simultaneously
• Look at prebiotics and foods rather than probiotics (which are tourists)
• Diet changes the gut microbiome within only 1-2 days
• Fecal microbial transplant is a powerful tool, when used with caution

-Foods that Dr. Hanaway finds to be the most efficacious in his practice...51:30

• Focus on fermented foods (work within people's tastes)
• Acacia root
• Bioflavinoids
• Allow beneficial bacteria to grow in the gut
• Pomegranate peel extract (produces urolithin A in the gut)
• Urolithin A Is a Dietary Microbiota-Derived Human Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Antagonist (PubMed)

-Tests other than Onegevity Dr. Hanaway finds particularly informative...57:15

• Nutreval Test
• 23andMe
• Intellix DNA
• Look for tools that are validated, not those that are created just to sell a product
• Heavy metal tests
• MyHeritage DNA Panel
• FoundMyFitness genetic tools
• Health Nucleus genome sequencing
• DUTCH Test

-Hot topics currently being discussed in the functional medicine community...1:02:30

• Autoimmune disease and cognitive impairment are hot button issues (Dale Bredesen)
• Focus on the community of the microbiome, not the individual microbes in the gut

-And much more... Resources from this episode:

-The Jordan Harbinger Show

- Click here to visit OnegevityHealth.com for the testing we discuss in this episode. Use discount code: BEN20 to receive $20 off your own test.

- JAMA Network Article on Functional Health

- How To Get 6 Gigabytes Of Data From Your Gut: The Fascinating Future Of Stool, Blood, Saliva & Urine Testing (From The Comfort Of Your Own Home).

- Psychobiotics and the Manipulation of Bacteria–Gut–Brain Signals

- A Review of Traumatic Brain Injury and the Gut Microbiome: Insights into Novel Mechanisms of Secondary Brain Injury and Promising Targets for Neuroprotection

- My article about Dr. William Davis's coconut yogurt recipe

- Beneficial Effects of Pomegranate Peel Extract and Probiotics on Pre-adipocyte Differentiation

- Urolithin A Is a Dietary Microbiota-Derived Human Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Antagonist

- Nutreval Test

- GiEffects 3 Day Stool Panel

- DUTCH Test

- MyHeritage DNA Panel

- FoundMyFitness genetic tools

- BiscuitHead Biscuits & Gravy In Asheville

- Kettle & Fire Bone Broth

- Thomas Cowan's Vegetable Powders

- Gutbio by Onegevity Health

- Pomegranate peel extract

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Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Dr. Hanaway or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

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