Show #201 – Digestive health in a high tox world – it’s possible with Dr Melina Roberts

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

Love our new show tune in the intro/outro? It’s talented Australian independent artist Melanie Horsnell’s song “Birds”. So proud to support this wonderful Aussie artist and have her grace the show with her wonderful words and song!

Low Tox Club – the place to bring your low tox life to life

Want to join a community of like minds and enjoy all the perks of being in the Low Tox Life inner circle such as an online membership platform, 50% off all our Low Tox courses, an awesome chat group, my monthly Q&A, and special guest star interviews for just $49AUD ($29USD/28EUR/23pounds) per YEAR? We have created a special place and set of resources to help you achieve your goals and it’s a wonderful place to be – more details and registration here: https://www.lowtoxlife.com/the-low-tox-club/

And onto this week’s show!

This week we’re taking another look at Gut Health – this time with Canadian Naturopath doctor, Dr Melina Roberts. We look at gut wall integrity, enzymes, stomach acid, inflammatory foods, histamine, probiotics, and more in this week’s show. Melina is the author of Building a Healthy Child and Founder of Advanced Naturopathic Medical Centre in Calgary. She is recognized as one of the top Biological Medicine practitioners in North America and is a lecturer for the Paracelsus Academy. She is a leading authority in the field of naturopathic medicine specializing in Biological Medicine effectively treating digestive issues, chronic disease, and cancer. Dr. Roberts is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. She did a 2-year post-graduate study in Biological Medicine with Paracelsus Klinik in Switzerland.

The questions I asked Melina:

1. Your journey into becoming an ND? 
2. When did the digestive health fascination come into play as a specialisation for you? 
3. What did your postgrad bio-med studies in Switzerland allow you to be able to understand/bring into clinic practise, over and above ND quals? (just nice to spend about 5-10 mins on these first 3 q’s to position your expertise to the audience)
4. You’ve studied the human microbiome extensively – what kinds of people have the ones in the best shape? 
5. Why is digestive health so important – we’ve done a good handful of shows on digestive/gut health but nothing wrong with a 101 refresher. 
6. How does intestinal permeability become compromised? Through foods? chemical agricultural inputs? Other environmental toxins? 
7. What are some important rehab steps (a lot of people confused about what to take/dosages/types of strains when recovering from a round of antibiotics for example) or coeliacs/people with a late-life diagnosis of allergies/intolerances, wanting to repair the damage… 
8. Why do some people have reactions to histamines in food – what’s going on there, in the gut? 
9. How do we know when something is up with our stomach acid/digestive enzyme function and how do we cultivate healthy levels of stomach acid/digestive enzymes? Is supplementation long-term sometimes required or is a level of repair attainable in these areas? 
10. We’re all looking much more closely at obesity/higher BMIs and the link to poorer outcomes with Covid19 for these groups, so losing those extra pounds has never been more important – what is the role of the microbiome and its balance in relation to weight/resistant weight loss? 
11. We seem to be sold a bazillion ways to ‘heal the gut’ and for people with compromised digestive health, it can be exhausting jumping from one theory and program to another trying to pick what’s going to work, feeling like a failure, feeling more confused the more you learn… It always fascinates me that a protocol can be written for someone they’ve never seen as a patient, and by week 2 this is happening, by week 5 you can reintroduce XYZ… There are SO many moving parts to digestive health challenges: How do you help your patients find a path, stick to it, and know when it’s time to come off? 
12. If we could do 2 things for our gut health from today as an observational challenge over the next month, what would you suggest we introduce into our daily digestive health care? 

Other helpful links:

To know more about Dr Melina Roberts and her team’s work: https://advancednaturopathic.com/

Join her on Facebook and on Instagram @drmelinaroberts

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