← Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
Dr. Vincent Pedre: Leaky Gut, Wrinkles & Inflammation — The Hidden Connection
00:49:21
Loading summary
Transcript160 lines
- [00:05]
Amitay Eshel
Welcome back to the Biohacking Beauty podcast. The podcast where we dive deep into the science of skin aging and give you practical strategies to optimize your skin.
- [00:14]
Podcast Co-host
From the inside out. I'm your host, Amitay Eshel, co founder.
- [00:17]
Amitay Eshel
Of Yungoos, the biohacking skincare brand that blends cutting edge science with personalized rejuvenation. And in today's episode, we're getting into to the very root of beauty. Literally.
- [00:29]
Podcast Co-host
We're talking about the gut skin connection.
- [00:31]
Amitay Eshel
My guest today is Dr. Vincent Pedre, Functional medicine physician, gut health expert, and best selling author of Happy Gut and the gut smart protocol. Dr. Pedre is on a mission to help people heal from the inside out. And his research shows that if you want youthful, vibrant skin, you need to.
- [00:50]
Podcast Co-host
Start from your gut. In this episode, we'll explore explore what.
- [00:53]
Amitay Eshel
The gut skin axis is and why it matters for aging. How leaky gut and food sensitivities can show up as wrinkles, inflammation and acne. The top gut healing protocols that double as skin boosting tools. And how your microbiome, diet and even stress levels can influence collagen elasticity and glow. If you're looking for a new way to think about skin health, not just creams or serums, but what's going on inside your body, this episode will absolutely change the game. So whether you're battling breakouts, fine lines, or just want to age better, get ready for Dr. Pedre because he is about to share very interesting information.
- [01:32]
Podcast Co-host
Insights that are as practical as they are powerful.
- [01:36]
Amitay Eshel
And if you would like to try.
- [01:38]
Podcast Co-host
Some Yungoos products, you could head over.
- [01:40]
Amitay Eshel
To yungoos.com, use the code PODCAST10 and get 10% off your order.
- [01:47]
Podcast Co-host
All right, without further ado, let's get into it. All right. Dr. Vincent Pedre. Pedre is. I pronounced it correctly.
- [02:02]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Pedro.
- [02:03]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah. Welcome to the Biohacking Beauty podcast.
- [02:06]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
It's. It's great to be here. And also because we just kind of like you came into my circle and we've been in similar conferences. We were at the health optimization summit. And I really like what your company is doing, so I'm happy to be here on your podcast.
- [02:25]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah, yeah, likewise. And I love your coffee, by the way. I'm sorry to do it, but, like, you know, I remember liking the idea behind four Sigmatic so much that I was forgiving them for a horrible tasting coffee for a very long time. But then, but then I bought the beans and it was so bad, I was like, no, I'm not, not doing it. So Coffee with benefits is hard to make tasty, so well done for doing that.
- [02:58]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
It's funny that you bring them up, and I probably shouldn't say too much about this, but four Sigmatic was using the Happy Gut trademark without authorization on their packaging.
- [03:13]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Wow.
- [03:13]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah. And, well, you see. Yeah, I knew there we're in a bit of. A little bit of a dispute with them and a disagreement about that.
- [03:23]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah, well, tell me about it. We are probably the most copied skincare company in the world. But listen, you know what? I think sometimes I bring up something I want to bring up now, and if you're not a gut enthusiast, I see people become extremely confused. So how many conversations do you get to have on the gut skin axis and how it, you know, presents itself in the. In the aging process?
- [04:00]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
This is not a common conversation in podcasts, but it. It actually is a conversation that gets really good engagement. On my Instagram, whenever I talk about the gut skin connection and the importance. I think this is something, you know, it's. It's part of this awakening that we're seeing in the last. Really, in the last 10 years. Because if you go back in time, like just 10 years ago, when I was in the process of publishing my first book, Happy Gut, and I was talking about the microbiome 2015, people did not know what microbiome was like. People had no concept of the gut microbiome. And actually the year, I think it was the year after, which was 2016, the year my book published. Microbiome was declared by the Today show as the word of the year, really. And it slowly came into the vernacular, but even now, 10 years later, and I've been talking about all the interconnections with gut health and especially skin, because I think of the gut as our inner skin. And if we look back at embryology, the same tissue that in the embryo develops as the skin actually, while it's developing, turns folds inwards, and then creates the entire tube that is our digestive system. So when I started thinking about that, I was writing about the gut skin connection, and I came up with this idea of calling the gut our inner skin to get people to think about how. How they're both interconnected. And if you want your outer skin to shine, you need to make sure that your inner skin is also healthy 100%.
- [05:53]
Podcast Co-host
And what's funny is, is that I think it's even more profound. Like what you are saying is more.
- [05:59]
Amitay Eshel
Profound than trying to infer that both should be treated the same.
- [06:05]
Podcast Co-host
And what I mean by that is we know that the gut, for example, if we talk about things like, obviously if we talk about things like leaky gut or gut dysbiosis, they will manifest in the skin, nevermind what you will do to the skin. In other words, I cannot correct dysbiosis in the gut by correcting dysbiosis in the skin. Right?
- [06:32]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah, yeah.
- [06:33]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
But vice versa, what's happening in the gut will ultimately affect what's happening on the skin. And we know that there's different types of beneficial bacteria that even, even being in the gut are going to influence different things like the production of sebum on, on the gut and, and even the skin barrier, because people don't think about this. But there is such thing as leaky skin.
- [07:07]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah, yeah.
- [07:08]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Leaky skin barrier, which is connected to leaky gut as well.
- [07:14]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah. And I think it's important and to, in order for people to, no pun intended, to be able to digest that. I think it's important to explain that.
- [07:24]
Amitay Eshel
Really what we are, what's leaking into.
- [07:27]
Podcast Co-host
Our body, although it could be microbes or you know, digested remains or whatever.
- [07:34]
Amitay Eshel
It'S really faulty information.
- [07:37]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Right?
- [07:37]
Podcast Co-host
It is information that is confusing the system because it's not supposed to be there.
- [07:42]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah.
- [07:42]
Podcast Co-host
Let's talk a little bit about leaky gut and what's going on there. And I think it would make sense.
- [07:46]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
I think the best way to understand leaky gut is first the gut lining is one cell layer, thin. It is probably the thinnest membrane in our body. And of course it's supposed to be leaky. It's a semi permeable membrane. It needs to allow nutrients to come through. Right. So I use the analogy of a coffee filter. When you're making coffee, you know, you're adding water, say you're doing a pour over, you're putting the hot water through. Imagine those are the nutrients and on the other side you get this beautiful scented aromatic water. Now what if I take the coffee filter and before I add the coffee grinds and before I pour the hot water over it, I poke hundred little tiny holes in the coffee filter and now I add the grounds and then I start pouring the hot water. But what's going to happen?
- [08:43]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah, the grounds are going to, things.
- [08:45]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Are going to come through those tiny holes and that's basically what the way I describe leaky gut is that your gut lining develops these micro perforations or micro holes where the, the Velcro like connections between the cells have come apart a bit. So they're allowing for stuff to get in, in between the cells. And the more damage you have to the gut lining, the more things, inflammatory substances from inside the gut are going to get in and they're going to manifest in different ways in different parts of the body. So someone who has skin issues is not just going to have skin issues. They might be overweight, they might have some insulin resistance, blood glucose metabolism problems, they might have some brain fog going on. But all of these things are downstream effects from having a leaky gut. Yeah, an immune. Over activation of the immune system.
- [09:42]
Podcast Co-host
Exactly. Yes. So what, what are the most common skin conditions that are linked with, with leaky gut?
- [09:51]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
I mean, acne is a big one. Yeah, super big one. And you know that, that is a multibillion dollar industry with topicals. And, and no one really was talking about the importance of what you're putting into your mouth and how that shows up on the outside of your skin or even like being, you know, sometimes we put people on chronic antibiotics to treat skin issues and, but they're causing dysbiosis, so they're, they're imbalancing the gut ecosystem. And over time they can make things worse rather than better. And then we have things like. Eczema is also very common. I've seen this in my practice. A lot connected to, to leaky gut and also to food sensitivities. So there's certain foods that, that can be triggers for eczema. Very common one is gluten from wheat.
- [10:47]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [10:48]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And hives. Yeah, hives as well. I had a patient early on when I had just started working on gut health and I was learning functional medicine and I was still kind of like, I was almost like a little boy in the chemistry lab that was like telling his patients to do things and like, oh, my God. Wow, that works. So I had a patient come to see me. She had been to, like, seven dermatologists trying to deal with these hives that she was getting that were not going away. And this was early on when I was learning functional medicine and root cause medicine. And as she's telling me this story, like, I'm having an inner dialogue log saying, like, oh my God, she's been to seven dermatologists. She was at the top, like dermatologist at Mount Sinai in New York. And now she's here asking me to help her with the same problem that none of those doctors were able to help with. But then, but then I put that aside and I said, okay, well, what do I understand and what do I know that this, what's being. What's manifesting on the skin is actually something that's going on inside the gut. And she was actually Irish, and a lot of people from Ireland actually will have HLA markers for celiac disease and potentially not do well with gluten. So I did some testing on her and found and concluded that she was probably gluten sensitive. She was not very happy because she's like, I'm going to have to give a pasta and bread. And I said, look, let's do it for four weeks and then check in. In four weeks, her hives were down by 50%.
- [12:35]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Wow.
- [12:35]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Nothing else had affected it. And at that point, I was. I told her, you know, why don't we continue for a little bit longer? Another four weeks. In two months, the hives were gone.
- [12:46]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Wow.
- [12:47]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
We were working on healing the gut, you know, probiotics, things like that, and leaky gut. And she had been going to dermatologists for months or even up to a year, just being given topical steroids and things, but no resolution because no one was thinking about, well, where is it coming from? Rather than treating from the outside in, it had to be treated from the inside out.
- [13:09]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [13:10]
Podcast Co-host
Because when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
- [13:12]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [13:13]
Podcast Co-host
And again, of course, of course, chronic inflammation is like the, you know, is. The is. Is now a hallmark of aging. And. And in the skin, you know, is a big. One of the biggest drivers are. Is inflammaging, which causes obviously, early onset of. Of wrinkles, laxity. But really also talking about the gut, it's also something else that people don't.
- [13:37]
Amitay Eshel
Talk about enough, I think, which is.
- [13:39]
Podcast Co-host
Glycation, which is, you know, sugar molecules, the sugar that we eat attaching to collagen and making it less supple. So there's.
- [13:48]
Amitay Eshel
It really.
- [13:49]
Podcast Co-host
A lot of, you know, a lot of people, even if someone's past the age where they care about acne, they don't have acne, they don't have any autoimmune issues. It's still a big, big, big driver of how they look at the end of the day or in the morning, is what they put into their mouth.
- [14:05]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
One thing that I always thought was so dramatic when I would put people on my 28 day gut reset, which was part of my program that I created with my first book, Happy Gut, that published at the end of 2015, almost 10 years ago, their skin would glow by the end of the 28 days and to the point where. Where like, co workers would tell them, like, what are you doing? You look different. Like People didn't, couldn't figure out, like, well, what is different. But it's like their, their eyes were brighter, the skin was clearer, and it's because they were working on the inside. And I know you, you use things like NAD in your skincare, which is very important for mitochondrial health. Right. And the thing is that if your gut is a mess, that's going to cause mitochondrial dysfunction through a variety of ways, including leaky gut. And if, if your body is absorbing a lot of endotoxin, or we call endotoxemia after your, after meals, that's going to lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, and then that's going to show up in every organ in the body.
- [15:16]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [15:16]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Including the skin.
- [15:18]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah. And actually there's a study showing increased exposure to endotoxins and over time, an increase in an enzyme called CD38, which I call NAD, PAC man. So more CD38, less NAD, and vice versa. So there is, there is a, like a direct link between the speeding up of aging and an unhealthy gut.
- [15:41]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And it's interesting because I've seen studies where consuming pomegranate or pomegranate extract protects against solar skin damage from, from UV rays. And. But if you look at it from the gut perspective, pomegranate has polyphenols that feed the gut microbiome. And one of the things that the pomegranate polyphenols help with is restoring the mucus layer, which is on the other side of the gut lining. And the mucus layer, imagine that the mucus layer is, is like the moat around an old medieval castle, and it's your protective layer. But things like antibiotics, microplastics, poor diet, like overgrowth of bad bugs is going to decrease that moat where the outside wall of the castle is not protected. But something like pomegranate actually helps the. The body regenerates that mucus layer and rebuild it, which then is part of what is needed in order to reseal and heal the gut lining.
- [16:49]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [16:50]
Podcast Co-host
You know, it's funny because Nestle has a company that's called, that's called timeline, Timeline nutrition, Timeline longevity now. And Nestle, you know, invests, you know, tens of millions of dollars paying Andrew Huberman and whoever to say, hey, people should take this postbiotic, which is called urolithin A. Yeah. But the funny thing is, is like, hey, we're really missing the point here. Urolithinase created when you're eating pomegranate or taking pomegranate extract and your gut is gonna make it anyway. But you're missing all of these other plethora of benefits, by the way, other postbiotics like urolithin B and C, which I believe a lot of the butyrate also. Yeah, like what are we doing? It's so easy. It's cheaper and easier to take pomegranate extract or pomegranate than buying $100 worth of supplements from, from Nestle.
- [17:47]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Well, the other thing is, is that the, this postbiotic might actually be bypassing the actual reason for the dysfunction of the mitochondria. And yeah, there's a connection to gut health, but there's also connection to diet and overexposure to inflammatory fats and not enough Omega 3 fatt. And the destruction of the, of the bilipid membrane of the mitochondria, which is composed of phosphatidylcholine and phospholipids. And it may be that urolithin A is like putting the cart before the horse. You have to correct these other things first in order for something like urolithin A to work better.
- [18:31]
Podcast Co-host
Yes. Yeah, I agree.
- [18:37]
Amitay Eshel
Let's take a quick break from this episode to tell you about our new youth Firming Body Cream. If you're tired of body lotions that just sit on the surface, it's time to upgrade to something that actually works from the inside out on an epigenetic level. Yungoos Youth Body Cream isn't just your typical moisturizer. We've powered it with NAD Apex selviospermidine, longevity mushrooms, and ergothioneine and lemongrass extract with lipopeptides. This is a formula that literally reprograms how your skin ages. It restores cellular energy, boosts collagen production, and clears out cellular waste like senescent cells targeting those problem areas like your arms, legs, neck and decolete, where aging shows up first. Think of it as a bio biological reset for your entire body skin. Because when your skin gets the science it deserves, the results speak for themselves. Ready for your full body upgrade? Visit younggoose.com today and discover what happens when longevity science meets skincare. You can grab the link in the show notes below.
- [20:05]
Podcast Co-host
So what supplements would you say are making a dent or having a good effect on the gut? What supplements do you think are. You know and I know it's extremely individual, but what have you seen to be, to be effective and actually something that it connects to, something we talked about between ourselves, off air. How are you as a, as a physician day in, day out? How are you making decisions what to have in a product that needs at the end of the day to affect gut health.
- [20:35]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Okay, lots of different questions here. Yeah, I know, but let me, let me start by saying one, probiotics still can have some pretty powerful effects on the health profile of the person. Different probiotics have different properties. Not every probiotic is right for every person and not every probiotic is right for every condition. So depending on what the person has going on internally or externally, there might be different choices or probiotics. For me, it's important to use clinically researched strains when possible, not just generic lactobacilli or bacterial strains, but then depending on what's going on with the person. A lot of times I like to use spore based probiotics. And in terms of the gut, like some of the mainstays have been like L. Glutamine, aloe, dgl. These are still great. But now what I'm doing with my patients in my practice is stacking in peptides. So oral peptides in either a rapid release or a delayed release where formula, depending on what part of the gut I'm targeting. If I'm targeting small intestine versus the large intestine. And I've been seeing some really great results using things like BPC157 or combination of peptides like the BPC157, the Lorazatide and the KPV. Yeah, the peptides I think are really helping to accelerate the healing process. But again, like anybody listening, this is not a magic bullet. It's. It's peptides with diet, with mindfulness, with stress reduction techniques. So we haven't talked about that. But like when it comes to healing the gut, it's not just what supplement to take and what probiotic to take. It's. And it's not just also what diet to follow. It's what can you do to create a safer, more relaxed ecosystem for your nervous system so that your whole body can heal.
- [22:51]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah, yeah.
- [22:53]
Podcast Co-host
It's funny because often I try to give a simple explanation of the relationship between chronic stress and its impact on actually both the gut and the skin.
- [23:06]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And the skin. Yeah.
- [23:07]
Podcast Co-host
And I'm saying, hey, just look at every president before they started they got into office and after maybe the present one excluded. But even him, you can see, you can see how stress impacts the person. Age is like, yeah.
- [23:25]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Even things like when I was a kid, I was always so impressed with my, my mom used to tell me stories about my great uncle who was a doctor in Cuba and That he was also kind of a jokester. And she said when he would walk with her, he could look at people and tell her what their issues were, their health issues, just by looking at them. And as a kid, I thought, wow, that sounds like a. A superpower. But then at some point later on in my career, I started noticing that I could do the same thing. You look at someone and you can think like, oh, they drink too much alcohol. You're seeing, like, the redness here around the nose. Maybe some nasal acne or pimples or those almost like ingrown pimples that you see with that. Or like, even, like, things like vitiligo or eczema and. And you know that the person's gut is a mess.
- [24:23]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [24:25]
Podcast Co-host
It's funny. It's kind of not related, but, you know, doing. Doing jiu jitsu for. For over a decade, you could do it. I could do it by. By touching someone as well. I can kind of assess how well they are at fighting. I know it's a little different, but really, you. Within, like, five seconds by touching someone's shoulder, you know, if they can handle them themselves in a fight or not. So I get it. I get it. And obviously, you know, being a long time in the skincare business, you can also tell, you know, hey, you're eating too much sugar. Your. Your skin is very brittle and doesn't bounce back into place or other things.
- [25:07]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
There are some interesting things, like someone who has gluten sensitivity and is eating too much gluten. They will actually look puffy.
- [25:17]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [25:17]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Like their. Their face is holding on to a lot of extra water. They will. It will look almost like a Pillsbury Doughboy.
- [25:25]
Podcast Co-host
Yes. Or they can be, you know, red in certain places. The skin can actually be like, you know, there are going to be blood circulation issues. Like. Yeah, I think it's a very poignant point. Also, I would say that we kind.
- [25:41]
Amitay Eshel
Of strayed off topic, but there is.
- [25:43]
Podcast Co-host
A relation between, you know, the gut, brain, skin, in terms of cortisol and inflammation.
- [25:52]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Absolutely. And we know that stress is going to cause overgrowth of bad bugs in the gut, probably from having high cortisol levels, which means that blood sugar is going to be trending higher as well. And that affects things like yeast growth in the gut. And then, of course, that's going to also affect what's happening at the skin.
- [26:13]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [26:14]
Podcast Co-host
Tell me, because we're talking about the relationship with. Or, you know, the relationship between sugar, metabolism is the same thing. True about sleep as well. Or Lack of sleep.
- [26:24]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
We know that lack of sleep does a couple of things and one of them is that it increases inflammatory pathways in the body. So there's an intracellular pathway called the NF kappa B pathway and it's the.
- [26:42]
Podcast Co-host
The master switch of inflammation.
- [26:44]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah, it's the master switch. Well, that's switch gets turned on when there is chronic insomnia.
- [26:51]
Podcast Co-host
Wow, interesting.
- [26:52]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Or poor, poor sleep. The interesting thing too is like bidirectional because I've been working with several patients on sleep and find that when they usually have some level of dysbiosis, leaky gut, you start working on the gut and the sleep starts to improve.
- [27:13]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah, definitely. I think there is more to that. I think obviously, you know, our bugs, it's called the second brain, they interact with our brain. I think there is also a lot to the ability to calm down and relax and having no gut dysbiosis and vice versa, which would obviously lend itself to better sleep.
- [27:35]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Exactly, yeah. And it's connected to our breath, the diaphragm activation of the vagus nerve, the ventral vagus here, that innervates all the internal organs and also controlled by our gut microbiome. The microbiome in many ways sets our vagal tone. Vagal tone is controlling things like our digestion, production of stomach acid, release of digestive enzymes, gut motility. We know that constipation is going to make skin issues worse.
- [28:10]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [28:10]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
So you're holding on to toxins. So being able to even just to poop every day, which is not something that's common with everyone. And some people think that it's normal to just go once or twice per week. That's not, not good for the gut and also not good for the skin.
- [28:29]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [28:29]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
They found that actually constipation itself leads to dysbiosis. And. And yeah, because sometimes we were thinking like, does dysbiosis cause constipation or is the constipation that causes the dysbiosis? And there was a study that just came out that showed that when you correct the constipation, the dysbiosis actually improves.
- [28:50]
Podcast Co-host
Interesting. So I'm curious, so I'm going to shift gears a bit because I'm very curious actually. How does someone go from you know, writing a book about gut health, you know, treating people, being a very sought after physician, to creating a, a coffee. How, how. Walk me through the decision making there. Or the, you know, what was the point where you said, you know, coffee would be my, my vehicle?
- [29:19]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
It seems random, right? It's always like kind of like the, the meeting of opportunity with what I think is miss, you know, partly what I thought was missing in the market, being a coffee lover myself, but having actually given up coffee for seven years because coffee made me too jittery and also made me sick to my stomach. And back then, you know, like this is now going back probably like nine, 10 years. I didn't have the knowledge of like microplastic and thinking about the contamination in coffee with potential pesticides and mycotoxins mold in coffee. So it's really like it was a combination of opportunity and also thinking about where is everyone? Like where do people start their day? And really what are the microhabits that actually can have macro effects on our health. And one of them, and one of the biggest microhabits that like billions of people on this planet share is drinking coffee. 150American adults drink a cup of coffee every single day. And two billion cups of coffee are served worldwide every day. It is the most consumed beverage. And what I found missing in that conversation was the gut. No one was looking at it from the angle of gut health. How can we have a more gut friendly coffee? Low acid for all the people who are taking antacid medications, who suffer from heartburn, acid reflux, but then also like bringing the coffee into our, our brand offering and happy gut was also a way to start educating people about that daily habit and how that can affect your health from using K cups because they're convenient, but they're exposing you to microplastics. And the fact I started researching, so as part of this I was, I just decided, well, let me go into the research and look at like how are the microplastics affecting us? Because we're getting exposed through K cups and espresso pods. But even when you go to the coffee shop and you're getting that to go cup, you don't realize that you're getting exposed to microplastics when you're drinking. So I looked at that and started finding research showing that the microplastics actually disrupt that mucus layer that I was talking about that's so, so important. The, the mode of protection on the outside of our gut lining that protects us from the bad bugs in the gut and it disrupts the gut microbiome and also actually causes overgrowth of bad bugs. So it was a combination of a couple of things. Also having grown up Cuban where coffee is, is such an essential part of our culture and was like, I don't know if it's similar in Israeli culture. But in Cuban culture, whenever a guest came over in the afternoon, like if I was home from school and a guest came over, the first question you ask the guest is, would you like some coffee? Would you like some. A Cuban espresso? And so because it was taking me back to my childhood in the 70s, we actually ended up, this is the creative part. We ended up rebranding Happy Gut with this sunrise that has a little bit of a kind of like a retro feel, like 70s, like going back to my childhood. And actually we did this to come up with the coffee. We wanted the coffee to have its own thing. We ended up loving this so much that this became the new logo for Happy Gut and this became the brand symbol for the brand. So beautiful. It's a, it's a little bit of emotional feel good, like just going back to my childhood. My parents are no longer here with me, but it's sort of a way for me to connect with my parents and also bring a product that is really good to the market that people can trust that it's going to be healthy for your gut and just good for the body. It's rich in polyphenols which are also act as prebiotics for the gut microbiome.
- [33:40]
Podcast Co-host
I'm a sucker. Yeah, I love it. I'm a sucker for things that I like doing and that, that would be good for me as well. Like if you, if, if you're solving that issue for me, I'm just, I'm a sucker for it. You know, I remember being a teenager and looking at the cool kids smoking and I was telling myself, if there was only a healthy cigarette, something that could actually get healthier, cooler, stronger, whatever while smoking, I would love that cigarette. So that to me is a concept that I think you're obviously.
- [34:14]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And it's interesting because the coffee then inspired a reformulation of our leaky gut formula that we call leaky gut advantage into a vanilla flavored formula that goes really well with the coffee. Because we thought, well, let's have people do what they do already and then show them how they can add in, stack in a healthy habit.
- [34:37]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [34:38]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And then it also inspired launching a collagen supplement because so many people like to put collagen in their coffee. And we found a collagen that actually the ingredients are backed by 15 clinical research studies. One showing that it reduced inflammation at the joints by over 40%. So, so again we're like, okay, we can, we can come out with a gut friendly coffee and then stack in some other really Healthy behaviors that instead of having to take more pills, you just mix it into your coffee and you drink it so you're enjoying your morning cup. And you, you can know that you're doing good for your gut and your joints and your skin and your hair, everything together.
- [35:18]
Podcast Co-host
I love it. And, you know, it's funny because I have so many conversations about collagen supplements and people are like, what is this? Is it hype? Is it not hype? Would it help my skin? And I'm telling people, you know, at the end of the day, these are building blocks. Your body is going to break them apart. It's not going to. You know, my joke is if you're going to eat a banana, you're not going to become a unicorn. It's not going to grow out of your forehead as a banana. Your body's going to break it down. You're going to now have mainly sugar, but you're going to now have the building blocks that there potassium or whatever. And collagen is the same. But what I'm saying is if you are gonna see benefits in your skin, it's mainly because collagen is needed also in the gut. Yeah, it's needed in the joints, but it's really needed in the gut. And it's a big part of gut health is having enough collagen and vice versa. Something that I've spoken a few times on the podcast, but recently with Dr. Vanda Wright, is that there is a. It is. The prevalence of IBS in long distance runners is incredible because they are hammering. There is a huge demand of collagen because of the erosion of the joints, which also depletes collagen in the gut and in the skin. But here, obviously, you know, here you have like the ultimate, I would say, like, building block for all three.
- [36:45]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah.
- [36:46]
Podcast Co-host
So, yeah, very, very cool. Very important. And does it survive well in the temperature of coffee?
- [36:53]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah, because they're peptides. So, yeah, it doesn't matter.
- [36:59]
Amitay Eshel
Let's take a quick break from this episode to discuss skincare that makes big promises but delivers small results. We know how tiring it can be. Yungoos isn't playing that game. This is longevity science for your skin, where breakthrough ingredients meet real results. For example, our bio barrier formula features LPC6, an antioxidant that's 20 times more powerful than vitamin C. We're talking triple action defense against every type of free radical that ages your skin. And our revolutionary spermidine serums, the first skincare products to harness this cellular powerhouse that literally Triggers your skin's renewal process. Every Yungoos product targets aging at the molecular epigenetic level. NAD precursors that restore cellular energy, Peptides that rebuild collagen, Bioidentical compounds that. That reinforce your skin's natural defenses. This isn't surface level skincare. This is your skin's biological reset. Whether you're dealing with dryness, signs of aging, or just want skin that actually looks as good as you feel, Young Goose has cracked the code on what your skin really needs. If you're ready to experience what happens when science meets skincare, check out the Yungoos link in the show notes or go to yungoos.com because your skin deserves the future, not just another cream.
- [38:44]
Podcast Co-host
And you also have a really cool like quiz, like the gutsmart quiz that I. That I was. That I'm also a sucker for quizzes. So what's the idea behind the quiz? And how can a quiz make something truly personalized?
- [39:00]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
This was kind of born out of my experience working with patients after. Especially the. The large influx of patients that I got after the publishing of my first book, Happy gut.
- [39:12]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [39:13]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And. And I became frustrated that every book out there is a one size fits all. And I'll critique myself. Because the most challenging thing when I was writing Happy God is how did I make a book with a plan that was good for everybody?
- [39:30]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [39:31]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Because it had to be a one size fits all. And it was extremely challenging. I think I succeeded in that. But as I was working with patients, I started thinking, you know, we need something else as well. We need something that speaks to the different gut types. Because someone who's really severely in. In severe gut imbalance can eat the same way as someone who's in the moderate or someone who's mild.
- [39:58]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [39:59]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And there was nothing out there that had accomplished that, in my opinion. So I came up with this idea and then realized as I was executing it that it was going to be harder than I thought. It actually took me. That was the. The first chapter that I wrote for. For my second book, the gutsmart protocol. First chapter was actually the quiz chapter because the whole book pivoted around this quiz and coming up with the questions. Because what I wanted to capture in the quiz is not just people are having gut symptoms, but people are having gut related symptoms like immunity, skin, brain, weight gain, all of that. And, and so I made this comprehensive quiz, created a point system on the quiz and by the scoring that you get on this quiz, it tells you if you have severe gut issues and you could, you could Get a high score even without having a lot of gut symptoms. Because a lot of people ask like, do you have to have gut symptoms to have a gut related issue? A lot of times you don't, you don't have to have gut symptoms and you might not even know. You might be one of these people who just not aware of stuff going on there. So basically the quiz divides people into mild, moderate or severe. And then that guides the program that they will follow. I created food lists that are divided into mild, moderate and severe. And basically I just wanted to honor the fact that not everybody's gut is the same. And if you're, if you're going on a gut healing journey, you may not be able to eat the same as the person next to you because they have different issues than you do.
- [41:42]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah, yeah, 100%. Well, I wanted, before we, we conclude, I really wanted to go through some rapid fire questions. It's something we're, we're trying. So I'm not a, I'm really not a pro at, at the rapid fire questions, but I wanted to go through them because I think we've gotten through the, through the years of doing it kind of the same questions about gut health over and over and over again. So this should be very short answers.
- [42:11]
Amitay Eshel
That we will be to use for.
- [42:14]
Podcast Co-host
Many bite size clicks later on that we will help solve people's kind of burning questions.
- [42:22]
Amitay Eshel
So first, what's the worst thing people.
- [42:26]
Podcast Co-host
Are doing for their gut without realizing it?
- [42:29]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Ooh, well, I could go back to drinking coffee that's contaminated with mold and pesticides and microplastics because it's normalized behavior and they don't realize that it's actually damaging their gut.
- [42:44]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [42:45]
Podcast Co-host
100%. What's one gut health trend that's actually worth the hype?
- [42:51]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
I don't know if this is a trend, but I'm going to say that right now we're on a rise in awareness around peptides.
- [43:01]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [43:02]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
And I think really, really zeroing in. Like, the more practitioners out there that realize how important peptides are and, or how beneficial they can be for healing the gut lining, I think we're going to start like helping so many people out there. Like, and I don't have, like, I do not have any ties to any peptide company. I do not sell peptides as part of my brand. But I want to share this information because it is, to me, it's the fast track to healing the gut lining.
- [43:36]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [43:38]
Podcast Co-host
You're talking to a convert here. So. Yes.
- [43:42]
Amitay Eshel
What's the Most underrated symptom of poor gut health.
- [43:46]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Oh, I. You know what? I think I'm gonna say constipation, because so many people are constipated that sometimes they just think it's normal, and they don't realize how. What dramatic effects constipation can have on your health and how important it is to be. We. We know that we. We detoxify by sweating through our skin, by peeing out metabolites, but the other way that we detoxify is by pooping, and it's super important that we do that every single day.
- [44:20]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [44:21]
Podcast Co-host
What's one food people think is healthy but wrecks the microbiome? Ooh.
- [44:27]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Let's think about this for a moment. This is a good question. Let me give it a moment of thought. A healthy food that wrecks the. Well. Okay. Because healthy can be defined by different people.
- [44:43]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [44:44]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Right. What's healthy for one person may be considered not healthy for another person. I will say, because I've seen this in. I hope it's not in the trends as much as it was before, but eating kale.
- [45:01]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah. Yeah.
- [45:03]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Kale is incredibly difficult to digest. It's abrasive to the gut lining. And honestly, we don't have the gut microbiome capacity to break down something with such a thick cellular wall as kale. And I. I think it's kind of dying down as a health trend. But it was such a big health trend.
- [45:24]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [45:24]
Podcast Co-host
Don't see as much T shirts anymore saying kale.
- [45:27]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
No, no. I mean, but I just think that I've just seen too many people eating raw kale salads that presented with horrible gut health.
- [45:38]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [45:39]
Podcast Co-host
Talking about trends and kind of things people talk about now especially, I would say, like, influencers. Is your bloat actually a gut imbalance in disguise?
- [45:53]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Always.
- [45:55]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [45:55]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Yeah. I would say. I would say 100%. Like, if there is bloating, there's something going on. But it could be. It could be a number of things. You could have a parasite. You could have different types of parasites. You might have. Have yeast overgrowth. You might have bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. You might just be constipated, and that's making you bloated.
- [46:16]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [46:16]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
You may be drinking too many carbonated beverages.
- [46:20]
Podcast Co-host
Yeah.
- [46:20]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Like, I mean, there's so many of these, like, flavored, carbonated drinks nowadays. It. It's always a combination of things, but if you're bloated, it's not normal.
- [46:32]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Yeah. Yeah.
- [46:33]
Podcast Co-host
I agree. Last but not least, what's the wildest Transformation you've seen from healing the gut.
- [46:43]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
I mean, I had a patient that did my 28 day program stacked two months in a row. He was a guy he lost over. I think in the end it was. It was definitely like around 35 pounds that he lost.
- [47:02]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
He.
- [47:02]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
He went from being inflamed and swollen with painful joints to just being the picture of health.
- [47:11]
Interjecting Guest or Co-host
Wow.
- [47:11]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Just by healing the gut. And of course, in that, like, we took things out of the diet that he thought were okay, like pancakes and syrup and he was having a lot of sugar. So that was probably one of my most dramatic transformations that I've seen.
- [47:28]
Podcast Co-host
I get it. I remember being in a mall outside of St. Louis probably around 2016, looking for a healthy food option. And in the food court, the place that was called healthy food, their healthy food option was PB&J sandwich on white bread. That was the healthy food. And they made me a shake and they didn't understand why I don't want the sugar water. Anyway, listen, Dr. Vincent Pedre, you are a wonderful person off air as you are on. And I am very excited for people to be listening to this episode because we don't talk about it enough. And I love what you are doing, doing, and I wish you a lot of success because a lot of people need you to succeed.
- [48:18]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Thank you.
- [48:19]
Podcast Co-host
All right, where can people follow you specifically and where can people get the products? And we'll have everything in the show notes, but if someone's listening, people can.
- [48:29]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
Follow me on Instagram @Doctor Pedre D R P E D R E. I put out a ton of free information there and they can learn about my books and all the different products that we have, including the coffee, by going to happygutlife.com or happygutcoffee.com amazing.
- [48:53]
Podcast Co-host
Thank you very much. It was very fun for me personally and I hope everyone listened. Had a great time too.
- [49:04]
Dr. Vincent Pedre
It.