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00:00okay um so how old are you by the way first off are you 30? 30 yeah okay and um so so you're from
00:12Manchester are you like born and bred? yeah yeah I'm from north Manchester so um I grew up in
00:19like Radcliffe and Prestwich areas yeah yeah and did you study here as well?
00:27yeah yeah I studied at Mamet University um so funnily enough I actually um after college I went
00:37to do English and then I didn't really like it I'd wish I'd chosen science so I swapped the
00:46following year to biomed so biomedical science um and then I graduated and I wasn't really sure
00:57what I wanted to do at first but I saw something called the scientist training program which is
01:02an NHS training graduate scheme where you can become a specialist scientist in a certain area
01:11but I was actually more interested in immunology which is studying the immune system
01:16um so I've done a project on that in my final year on uh it is immunotherapy so what they use to treat
01:25cancer and what they do is they basically take this immune system cells from you they tweak them and
01:32then they put them back into you and they target the cancer so I thought like this area is going to
01:38be really cool um I want to get into that didn't get onto it it was really competitive so I thought
01:46I'll do a master's you know just kill another year and try again and then I actually saw something
01:52advertised that was similar to the STP in Manchester but for gut health so for GI physiology
02:00and I thought oh well I'll give that a go past the interview obviously um met with our director who
02:08is professor Anthony Hobbs who runs the functional gut clinic where we are now uh and that was bloody
02:15eight years ago in June um and I'm so glad I did it because like gut health is just related to
02:23everything right so I was interested in the immune system but 70 percent of the immune systems in the gut
02:28and going back to that therapy that I talked about that immunotherapy and people who don't respond to it what
02:36they're seeing now is if you take the gut microbiome from someone who responds to it and give that to
02:43someone who doesn't respond so you give them like an FMT a fecal microbiota transport so you basically
02:49take the poo get all the bacteria give it to someone else then the person who didn't respond to it that
02:54cancer therapy now is much more likely to respond to it which shows that perhaps since you've got
03:00microbes in your gut which dictates how how that works for you so yeah so I'm so glad
03:07yeah I did it on this path yeah yeah definitely I mean personally I've had my own kind of issues and
03:14journey with with gut health and I guess that's really where I found you and I also recently read
03:19the mind gut connection as well um which I found to just be absolutely fascinating and it was really
03:25um accessible as well it wasn't using you know completely sciencey language which isn't really again
03:33accessible for the majority of people it was using language that you could fully understand and you
03:38could kind of go right like how how impactful the gut is and how much there actually is to it that you
03:45don't even realize and how it's essentially like a second brain and everything that is within that that
03:50actually you know affects your personality and also that you know there's possible links to some I guess
03:56neurological disorders that there's more research kind of being done there um which I just found to
04:03be so interesting because you see a lot of people with these you know different um you know gut issues
04:10and gut problems and a lot of the time now I think it seems like people are kind of going back to
04:15it might actually not be stemming completely from the gut but it could also be from from the mind
04:21from yeah stress and anxiety um so it's it's just it's so interesting because I think um it's not
04:29known a lot about um so so yeah um so so when did you start mr gut health and when did you really start
04:38to see the success from that because you're on 193 000 followers on instagram alone at the minute is that
04:43right yeah so I actually started it five years ago this month in lockdown um and I just started it
04:54because there wasn't really much else to do at the time like work wasn't busy obviously and I kind of
05:01been toying at the idea of doing something on social media because I saw other people you know
05:06dieticians and doctors doing stuff um so I started that uh but that was when instagram was more of like a
05:13photo based platform so I was like making graphics and that kind of stuff and then when sort of tiktok
05:22came out and instagram started pushing the video content that's when I started seeing
05:27mr gut health take off a bit more it wasn't really until maybe like the last
05:33sort of 18 months where it really took off I think probably what I saw the biggest increase was what
05:41was with when I started doing the mediterranuary so the mediterranean diet um but I actually did the
05:47test before and after so people started gaining interest in terms of following along I seen the
05:53journey I seen how this diet well could could change your health basically and then um sort of from
06:01from there yeah uh from then it's been doing pretty well yeah and and obviously you having grown do you
06:10think that this is kind of part and parcel of this new interest that seems to have happened this surge
06:16in gut health uh because it seems that a lot more people are talking about that and you could see that
06:21as you know a good thing because more people are looking into it and finding more about it but also
06:27because of that are you also seeing that there's a lot more misinformation that's being spread
06:32uh yeah definitely I mean you can see the interest in gut health is huge at the minute and that's
06:39reflected in the supermarkets for example like M&S have a gut range and you're walking to Tesco now and
06:46it's kefir and yogurt and they're starting to sell these fermented foods that no one had ever heard of
06:52you know a couple of years ago like kimchi um but yeah what happens is when something becomes really
07:01popular then you get a lot of charlatans and a lot of grifters that try and invade the space
07:08um so what they'll what one thing they like to do is fear monger for example and um I think
07:15people with gut issues and you might be able to relate is you know when you've been to the doctor and
07:21the doctor's done all the tests and they've come back normal and you know you're still struggling
07:26like you become almost desperate for answers right and then you've people some people on social media
07:34sound like they have the answers because of the way that they put the information across but really
07:40that information can in some cases be really harmful especially when it comes to things like
07:44advocating restricted diets so we're seeing a lot of interesting like the carnivore diet for example
07:49which people don't get me wrong will actually feel a benefit from if you've got gut issues because
07:55it's like an elimination diet so if you've got food intolerances and you go on a restricted diet then
08:03you you know you're removing those intolerances so you feel better but in the long run you're doing
08:08more damage to your health because the key to gut health really is diversity and having a diverse diet
08:15eating a whole range of especially plant foods um so yeah you just need to be careful not to
08:22fall for some of these tactics that uh people do on social media and you can usually tell because
08:28they're selling some sort of horse or supplement as well yeah well I think that's it's becoming more
08:35evident definitely um so as you just talked about the Mediterranean diet a little bit that's seems to be
08:42what you do focus on a lot and obviously there's so much research into the Mediterranean diet and the
08:46benefits um so could you talk a little bit more about it and kind of what you found within the
08:53Mediterranean diet yeah so again going back to people peddling restrictive diets we thought in January
09:02everyone wants to do a health kick this is where most people end up doing some form of diet and it
09:08doesn't usually last right because it is restrictive but we thought what happens if you do you know the
09:14diet that has the most research behind it in terms of not just gut health but overall health which would
09:21be the Mediterranean diet and just see how easy or difficult it is to follow and how it might actually
09:26change my health because um although I'm a pretty healthy person my I did a question food questionnaire
09:34before my diet wasn't actually that much in line with the Mediterranean diet and because
09:39I started in January over like December I was following more of you you could almost compare it to like a
09:48standard American diet where I was eating a lot of you know saturated fat and not a lot of fiber
09:55so it was probably the best time to to really do the diet and then maybe I wasn't the best skinny
10:02pig because I am relatively healthy so I think 93 percent of my health markers came back okay on the
10:10test so we did blood test um but then there was a few things like my cholesterol was a bit high
10:17my blood pressure was high and then interestingly my gut microbiome test came back and my gut microbiome
10:24wasn't that diverse but again this could have been because of the Christmas period and I was over
10:32indulging and eating um you know not a lot of fiber and plants so we did the Mediterranean diet and the
10:40Mediterranean diet what people don't realize is you don't necessarily have to eat Mediterranean foods
10:46the diet is a set of principles so it's not a diet per se but the way it works is
10:51in in scientific research studies on the Mediterranean diet they give you almost like
10:58um a checklist and you have to follow that checklist and the more of that you tick off
11:04the more you are there to the Mediterranean diet so that so what I did was I looked at all the
11:10different Mediterranean diet studies and I kind of made a checklist or a set of principles
11:16that would score me high points in those studies so that was things like four tablespoons of extra
11:24virgin olive oil a day so four tablespoons of Evo um for at least three servings of fruit
11:31at least two servings of vegetables at least two servings of whole grains at least two servings of
11:41fermented dairy so that's cheese and and yogurt um and then there'd be like weekly goals as well
11:48like eating legumes and beans at least three times a week eating fish at least three times a week
11:55including fatty fish and then there was some that weren't in all of the studies like uh red wine for
12:02example was in a few of the studies you could have a glass of red wine a day so I thought
12:06why not yeah why not because I'm testing my health right so let's see if it changes
12:11and then just general guidance like limiting red meat so you don't have to give it up but
12:17you know just eat it sparingly and obviously processed foods um eat them sparingly as well so
12:25yeah we did that for a month um and the results were pretty interesting so like I said I wasn't the
12:32best skinny pig I was already pretty healthy but my cholesterol my blood pressure came back to normal
12:36which was good okay I actually lost um three percent body fat and I wasn't working out any more than
12:44usual I wasn't tracking calories I was chugging Evo by you know I was doing I was going through
12:52one of those bottles once a week okay yeah yeah so I didn't put weight on in fact a lot I lost like
13:01a little bit of body fat and then we saw some interesting results with my gut as well like
13:05the diversity increased a little bit but what we saw was a significant increase in beneficial bacteria
13:13called um well the butyrate producing bacteria so butyrate is a short chain fatty acid
13:19that certain bacteria produce and it's really beneficial for your gut so it reduces inflammation
13:27it helps to strengthen the gut lining and the bacteria that produce this well they feed on
13:34fermentable certain fermentable fibers like what you find in beans for example so maybe it's because I
13:41was eating more beans and also they like polyphenols which are antioxidants found in some foods like
13:47Evo for example so that that they might be why I saw it increasing that's in these beneficial bacteria
13:54yeah but also the fact that we saw a change in just four weeks was was interesting as well because
13:59normally it does take you know two three up to six months to see a benefit so following that and not
14:07just seeing an improvement in health markers but just generally feeling a lot better as well like
14:12feeling really good on the diet I thought I'm just going to keep going with this um so yeah try and
14:19show people how easy it is to follow and yeah you don't need to be in the Mediterranean or you don't
14:24need to eat Mediterranean foods you just need to make sure you're hitting those principles hitting
14:28that checklist uh and technically you're following the Mediterranean diet now that's really interesting
14:33because you would think okay I'll need to eat these specific Mediterranean foods but really it's just
14:39about you know eating these certain amounts of actual kind of food groups which are in within the
14:45Mediterranean diet and following these particular schools and Evo as well which seems to be a bit
14:50of a like hidden secret ingredient to actually help a lot um but that's really that's really interesting
14:56um so another question I want to ask you is um what was some of the most common kind of gut issues that
15:03you're kind of seeing that people are kind of speaking to about and having an issue with
15:07so our clinics specialize in um in more like IBS type symptoms so bloating tummy pains changes to your
15:21bowel habit as well as things like acid reflux so heartburn indigestion um so that that's kind of
15:31kind of kind of what we see in clinic and I think what online a lot of people are wanting help with so
15:39it tends to be more you know I in line with IBS or in line with GERD acid reflux um and I think
15:49what a lot of people have done already is they've already been to the GP and they've already had some
15:55tests and for most people the tests come back normal but what we do is we try and find out if
16:03there's something else that could be going wrong like is it a problem with gut bacteria is it a
16:08problem with the function of the gut so how the muscles are working or what the gut's producing like
16:15these are a lot more niche tests but these are validated tests and what you have to be wary of any
16:22tests that promises uh you know quick answers and the example that I use is food intolerance tests
16:29because you know a lot of us struggle with certain foods and um oh once one second Jess uh no worries
16:39sorry
16:39yeah so we were talking about food intolerance yes yeah yeah yeah so um yeah you'll see well you might
16:51see it online like a lot of companies advertising these tests that claim to tell you what food you're
16:57intolerant to so you can send off a blood or even a hair sample um and what we did was last year we did
17:04a bit of a sneaky experiment where we bought some of these tests so we bought two of the tests from
17:12the two leading companies in the UK so both of them claimed to be the best yeah um and you send off
17:20a blood sample and they can tell you like over 200 foods that you're intolerant to so I sent them
17:27both off um and I sent them under a different name just in case they recognize me and both of the tests
17:37came back and said firstly they said I had food intolerances and I don't have any I think I'm maybe
17:43a little bit intolerant to sesame seeds but I know for a fact I don't have any other food intolerances
17:50and then they came back with I think it was 17 intolerances between them both but only three
17:59foods matched on both tests so who do you believe right like they're both coming back with totally
18:06different results and that's because these tests are just not validated they're not accurate
18:12whatsoever and what they will end up doing is people end up buying them tests and it's telling
18:17them they're intolerant to you know um like foods foods like wheat for example yeah or a vegetable
18:27certain vegetable foods that are good for you basically it'll tell you're intolerant to them
18:31when you're not and that's just going to make your diet more restrictive it's going to cause
18:36unnecessary food anxiety around eating those foods when they're good for you so so yeah um
18:45I think people who struggle with we've got issues become you know looking looking for answers but you
18:53just have to be careful um and that's why we set up things like none of you seen Tommy MOT that was a
19:00something we set up last year so that's a free education platform and what we do on Tommy MOT
19:07which is pretty cool is we review gut health supplements so if you've you're looking at a
19:16probiotic for example in Boots or Holland and Barrett and you're not sure whether it's any good
19:23then you can go to Tommy MOT and we'll have reviewed it to say like yes this product has been shown in
19:31in a scientific study to help xyz or this product has not been tested which means you know probably
19:40shouldn't waste your money on that yeah something else instead and that's all free
19:44um that's free for people to use that's great resource yeah yeah that's really that's really
19:51good um so something else that I kind of wanted to ask you as well kind of I guess two questions in
19:57one is what would you say is one of the worst things that you could do for your gut health and also
20:06kind of the reverse of that what would you say is like the best one of the best things or what would
20:12you say is a tip that maybe people don't really know that it's you know that they can start doing
20:16so the worst thing hands down is you if you get food poisoning like there's the single biggest risk
20:26factor for long-term gut health issues and we see a lot of people in clinic who has said their issues
20:34started after they got a tummy bug you know they got gastro they went on holiday and they picked
20:40something up or yeah and the research is there to back it up and it also depends on what kind of
20:46bug you get as well for example campylobacter which you can get from like undercooked chicken
20:52is one of like the biggest um well it's one of the worst ones to get so one in five people who get that
21:00will then 12 months later still be struggling with gut issues so we call it post-infectious IBS
21:06um so that's really like you know rolling the dice to see whether in 12 months time
21:14you're still going to be struggling um so the best thing genuinely the best thing you could do
21:19to look after your gut is to try not to get sick so practicing proper food hygiene um you know if you go
21:29if you're going to go traveling to a country with a greater risk of these sort of foodborne illnesses
21:36then just be prepared maybe take a probiotic before you go um take an intestinal adsorbent with you in
21:43case you do get sick so that these are things that can help to clear the infection up really quickly
21:48like enterous gel um so yeah just you know being a bit more mindful of that and then obviously
21:57the next best the next the next big thing would be stress and uh you know worry anxiety depression
22:05and you've already alluded to this jess about the gut brain connection so it's certainly a two-way
22:10um a two-way thing because we've all sort of experienced you know butterflies uh or when you
22:21know you've got to give a presentation you get really nervous and you feel a bit sick that knot in
22:25your stomach you might even want to run to the toilet so imagine like that stress of a situation like
22:32that but constantly and how that would have a negative effect on your gut so number one yeah food
22:40poisoning number two look after your mind as well um and yeah what what what was that what was your
22:46next one a tip what's the best yeah like your old best advice something that you know is really good
22:52that if you start doing uh could really benefit your gut health yeah um i'd say try and we know you
23:01know you should eat a more diverse diet so eating as many plants as you want but i'm really into like
23:07eating fermented foods at the minute so we did another experiment on tummy mot last year
23:13where we we called it the fermented five so it was me and four of them ate so five of us
23:20we ate five different fermented foods every day so cafe kombucha kimchi um sauerkraut those kind of
23:28things and we a lot of us saw a really significant increase in good bacteria in our gut
23:33so what i would say is yes eat as many different plants as you can but also try and include some
23:42foods that contain good bacteria in them like the cafe kombucha yeah i think just don't overcomplicate
23:50it like it's all it's about gut health is about what you can add and not what you can take away so
23:56people think oh i need to cut out gluten i need to cut out dairy to improve my gut health probably not
24:01right you just need to eat the right kinds of dairy so you need to eat cafe and yogurt and fermented
24:09cheeses not milk and cream and processed cheese you don't need to cut out gluten because only one
24:16percent of the population are celiac and can't have gluten actually you just need sourdough bread which
24:23has been fermented and it's easier to digest you know what i mean like it's about what you can
24:27i did rather than take away so that's yeah in general brilliant yeah thank you so much so
24:35that's all my questions that i have for you so i'm just going to end the recording here
24:39so