Welcome to “Healthy Vision,” the talk radio show to help you conquer your vision loss. Dr. Edward Kondrot is a board-certified ophthalmologist and homeopathic doctor, author of four bestselling books. “Healthy Vision” is dedicated to bringing you the latest information for a lifetime of healthy sight, and to help you conquer your eye problems.
Dr. Kondrot: Welcome to “Healthy Vision.” This is your host, Dr. Edward Kondrot, and I’m here every Sunday evening to help you learn new and exciting things to improve your health and vision.
There is a lot of interest now in natural pharmacy. People are interested in natural products, and they’re concerned with petrochemicals and toxic substances they may be taking that are actually damaging their health.
A few months ago at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine meeting, I met a very interesting gentleman, Ross Pelton, who is a natural pharmacist. He introduced me to a really interesting product.
Everybody is focusing on the gut now to restore health, and the thinking is that a lot of causes of diseases that affect us originate in the gut. I really believe that poor gut health is linked to vision problems and brain health. This is going to be a very exciting discussion with Ross Pelton.
Ross, welcome to “Healthy Vision.”
Ross Pelton: Hi, Dr. Kondrot. It’s really nice to be with you and your “Healthy Vision” listeners.
Dr. Kondrot: Thanks for taking time. You’re calling in from the state of Oregon, and it was really great meeting you at the A4M meeting. Could you introduce yourself to the listeners with a little bit about your background and how you got interested in natural pharmacy, in particular the probiotic product we’re going to talk about?
Ross Pelton: I call myself a recovering pharmacist. I’ve been a pharmacist for many decades, but back in 1980 through a chance fluke, I happened to look in on a yoga class. I saw a group of people that radiated a level of health that knocked my socks off.
Up until that time, I’d been pretty much a standard American diet kind of guy with fast foods, and I didn’t really know anything about health. Through yoga, I met people who were interested in health. They read the health books, magazines, and newsletters. They ate healthy food and exercised regularly. When I got involved with yoga, I started to absorb all of this health-related literature these people exposed me to. I absorbed it like a sponge. With my background in medicine and pharmacy and science, I realized that I really could understand all this health information. It just made sense, and it’s been making sense ever since.
For the last 30 or 40 years, I have been somewhere between passionately and neurotically chasing after all this health information. It just gets deeper and more interesting.
Eventually, I started writing books about the material I was learning. I wrote a book called Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Handbook which teaches pharmacists and physicians what nutrients are being depleted by the drugs people start taking. Often people who take medications for a while develop nutrient deficiencies because the drugs are depleting nutrients. Then they get symptoms, go to the doctor, and get a prescription for another drug when they really need to take nutrients to solve and prevent many of these problems.
Over the course of the last 15 years or so, I’ve taught a series of seminars to healthcare professionals about how to utilize and integrate natural medicine into their practices. I taught a course on probiotics and the human gastrointestinal tract for quite a few years.
I’ve been interested in probiotics for a long time. Since the Human Microbiome Project got funded a number of years ago, the research into probiotics has just exploded. It’s turning out that probiotics and the human gut are really the frontier of medicine. It’s one of the most exciting new discoveries of all time in terms of understanding the role gut health plays in overall health.
That’s my passion these days, and I’m happy to talk about it a bit and share some information with your listeners.
Dr. Kondrot: You can’t help but go to a medical meeting now, at least the integrative and alternative meetings, where the focus has been on the gut. For the last few years, there have been so many dynamic speakers talking about the gut.
At the A4M meeting, did you introduce me as the speaker? There was something peculiar about the way we met. Maybe you were supposed to introduce me.
Ross Pelton: I was scheduled to introduce you, and then my flight connection was very tight. They actually pulled somebody else in to do the introduction. After my presentation, I had to leave for the airport right away, but we got to meet each other and talk a little bit. I did hear your presentation. I was very impressed by your work.
Dr. Kondrot: You gave me your card. What really struck me is I have an interest in the gut. I’m focusing on that with all my patients who have eye disease, especially after reading all the literature about how closely related the gut and brain are. It’s not only the gut and brain but the gut and the eye. When I see somebody with wet macular degeneration, there’s a leakage in the retina. I can just assume there’s a leakage in the gut.
In the past, I’d tell patients to clean up their diets, eat organic, avoid genetically modified food, and stay away from antibiotics and various pharmaceutical products that may be damaging to the gut, but I didn’t feel how important it is and how you have to be focused on addressing the gut issues if the patient is really serious about restoring vision and mental fiction.
You mentioned a national study, the Human Microbiome Project. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Ross Pelton: In 2007, the National Institutes of Health funded the Human Microbiome Project. This evolved out of the Human Genome Project.
The background and history are interesting. The Human Genome Project, the project to sequence the human genome, took 13 years. The first human genome cost $3 billion to sequence. One of the major goals from the whole project was that after they sequenced the human genome, they thought they would be able to learn the causes of major chronic degenerative diseases and create cures for them. That major goal of the Human Genome Project was a total failure. We did not get any great cures for diseases from understanding the sequencing of the human genome.
Fortunately, they funded the Human Microbiome Project, and now we’re starting to research the genome of the bacteria in our gastrointestinal tract. This is where things get really exciting because we’re finding out that there are 10 times more bacteria in our body than there are human cells in our body.
Dr. Kondrot: Let’s hold that spot. We’re coming up to a break. Folks, you want to stay tuned. This is so fascinating. Who would think our gut had such an importance to our health? We are destroying our gut with the food we eat, antibiotics, and our lifestyle. Stay tuned. I’ll be right back after the break with Ross Pelton to talk more about the gut and your health.
Welcome back to “Healthy Vision.” With me is Ross Pelton. Ross, I just went on Amazon, and you have quite a few books. I thought I was a prolific writer. You have books coming out the wazoo.
Ross Pelton: I’ve written 10 books, and now I’m starting to produce online seminars.
Dr. Kondrot: You have me beat. I’ve written seven books. Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Handbook is pretty pricy at $86.
Ross Pelton: It is a classic book. It is out of print, but I’m getting ready to make all that information available in an online seminar for healthcare professionals.
Dr. Kondrot: You have a lot of other books that are more reasonably priced like The Pill Problem: How to Protect Your Health From the Side Effects of Oral Contraceptives, Nutritional Cost of Prescription Drugs, and Alternatives in Cancer Therapy. There is a lot of really good stuff.
On the break, I couldn’t think of Dr. Perlmutter’s book called The Brain Maker. He talks a lot about the link between our gut and the brain. I’m sure just about every listener in Radio Land is concerned about their memory and the brain because Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and neurological diseases are becoming so prevalent. It’s the same thing with eye disease. We have to pay attention.
Ross, Tell us a little more about the Human Microbiome Project.
Ross Pelton: It’s funding for the study of the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. A couple of weeks ago, the government funded a new program called the National Microbiome Initiative. The funding for this scientific endeavor is $521 million, which is over three times more than the funding for the original Human Microbiome Project. I’m really excited that the government understands how important research into the microbiome is and how important the bacteria in our gastrointestinal tract are.
Just before the break, I mentioned we have 10 times more bacteria in our body than we have human cells. What’s even more interesting is that scientists now understand that over 99 percent of the DNA in our bodies is the DNA of our bacteria. They are involved either directly or indirectly in regulating almost everything that goes on in our body. We have the link between obesity. We have brain connection linking the gut with inflammatory conditions in the brain, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. We understand that all these things now are linked to the gut.
A very famous scientist by the name of Alessio Fasano, an Italian medical doctor who’s now at Harvard, has discovered that when you have inflammation in your gut, you actually create this leaky gut situation which he thinks is the beginning of all autoimmune diseases. In fact, probably all diseases start from leaky gut and intestinal permeability.
Dr. Fasano says the two main things that cause leaky gut are bad bacteria, so it’s really important to have a healthy microbiome and optimal levels of good probiotic bacteria, and gluten. Both of these conditions create inflammation, which causes leaky gut.
Dr. Kondrot: You’re not saying people should take gluten. You’re saying to avoid gluten.
Ross Pelton: Avoid gluten. Have a gluten-free diet. I need to be clear on that.
My passion is the microbiome. The company I work for, Essential Formulas, has what I think is the finest probiotic in the world for gastrointestinal health. It’s called Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics.
Dr. Kondrot: I started to take it myself. I’m taking Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics and Reg’Activ Immune & Vitality.
I read a statistic that no one in the United States has a healthy gut. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how we are screwing up our gut. We are royally screwing up our gut.
Ross Pelton: You’re right, Dr. Kondrot. There are a lot of things contributing to dysbiosis, which is where you have an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in your gut. The agricultural pesticides and insecticides are killers. The things that are given off in industries for air pollution are horrible. Mercury fillings are terrible. Then you get into things like chlorinated water and fluorine in the water. That’s horrible on the gut.
Then there are a lot of prescription drugs people take that ruin your microbiome. Those are things like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, oral contraceptives, and all of the medications for gastroesophageal reflux. All of these drugs are upsetting your microbiome, not to mention fast foods, high-fat foods, and high-sugar foods, which is the standard American diet these days. All these things are contributing to an unhealthy microbiome in the gut, which is leading to all the chronic degenerative diseases we’re seeing today.
It’s been in the last 70 or 80 years that these chronic degenerative diseases have escalated so incredibly. That’s what happened during the time we started to see all these changes in our environment which are impacting people’s health. It’s critical to pay attention to your gut health. That should be one of the most important things people pay attention to when they’re trying to improve their health with any health condition, whether it’s better vision or any kind of diagnostic condition. It all begins in the gut.
Dr. Kondrot: I read an article that says another contributing factor is the increased incidence of Cesarean sections when a child does not go through the birth canal. There is also the lack of breastfeeding. I wonder if you could comment on those two items.
Ross Pelton: I’m glad you brought that up. Those are critical issues. An infant gets their first exposure to the good bacteria through a vaginal delivery coming down the mother’s birth canal. In a Caesarean section birth, the infant does not get exposed to the good bacteria from the mother. That starts a lifelong problem for that child where their immune system and digestive system don’t develop correctly.
It’s the same for breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is absolutely essential because the mother’s milk feeds the good bacteria. If infants are not breastfed, they get more of the bad bacteria growing. For their whole life, they struggle with digestive problems and immune system problems of various types of illnesses.
Dr. Kondrot: Another issue is our obsession with cleanliness. Everybody is wearing gloves nowadays, and we have hand sanitizers. When I was young, I would drink out of the garden hose or pick a dirty apple off the tree and eat it. I played in the dirt. I’m hoping that actually helped my gut. Do you agree we need to be exposed to different bacteria, not eliminate exposure from our environment?
Ross Pelton: I totally agree with you. What you’re referring to is called the Hygiene Hypothesis. People are so afraid of bacteria that they’re using hand sanitizers all the time. That allows for the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. You’re right. A little bit of dirt is not a bad thing at all. Kids raised on farms or who have animals for pets have fewer allergies and are healthier overall than kids who are excessively cleanly throughout their early childhood.
Dr. Kondrot: I think the French have it down. Every time they greet someone, they kiss both cheeks. I’ve read that kissing can actually improve your intestinal health, but I’m not advocating promiscuity.
Ross Pelton: When you kiss someone, you are actually sharing your microbiomes. That does happen on a regular basis.
Dr. Kondrot: I tried to convince my wife it’s a good idea for me to passionately kiss other women. She doesn’t agree with me on that. She said, “Honey, take a good probiotic.”
We’re coming up to another break. You’re listening to “Healthy Vision.” I have a very interesting guest, Ross Pelton. He’s a prolific writer. Go to www.Amazon.com and put in his name. Ross, can you give us your website?
Ross Pelton: My website is www.NaturalPharmacist.net. In the next segment, I’ll make a free offer to your listeners when we talk about the glutathione-producing probiotic bacteria.
Dr. Kondrot: Fantastic. Ross is going to be giving us a good offer on one of his probiotics, so we’ll be right back after this break.
We’re back on “Healthy Vision.” This is your host Dr. Kondrot. With me is Ross Pelton. What a fascinating topic. We’re talking about the gut and the tremendous influence it has on your health.
If there’s one thing you have to do, look at what you are doing to your gut. You have to begin to restore the healthy bacteria in your gut. That is going to be a major key in improving your overall health, your mental health, and your vision.
Ross, what can people do?
Ross Pelton: It’s very important to take probiotics. Just about everybody can benefit from probiotics. There is a wide range of quality when it comes to probiotics. If you go to a chain store and spend $9.95 for 100 probiotic capsules, you’re getting what you paid for, which is probably not very much health to you.
I mentioned earlier that Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics is different than every other probiotic in the world because of the way it’s made. The bacteria are allowed to grow in huge fermentation vats for three to five years. When they encapsulate Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics, you not only get the probiotic bacteria but you get the pre-biotic food supply that has been supplied for three to five years of fermentation. Then you get a therapeutic loading dose of what Dr. Ohhira calls the biogenic mass, which is all the beneficial compounds that the bacteria have been producing during the years of fermentation.
We try to educate people that in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics, the probiotic bacteria are of secondary importance. The thing that’s so important about Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics is this therapeutic loading dose of all the immune-system-enhancing compounds, the nutrients, the natural antibiotics, and the cell-signaling compounds that have been produced during three to five years of fermentation.
That’s Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics. There’s nothing like it. If your listeners want to learn more about it, they can go to www.EssentialFormulas.com, which is my company that markets Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics throughout the United States.
There’s another interesting topic which I talked about at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine conference. There are probiotic bacteria called lactobacillus fermentum ME-3. It has been discovered that this strain of bacteria produces glutathione in humans.
Glutathione is an incredibly important substance. We call it the master antioxidant. It probably protects more of your body than all the other antioxidant nutrients combined. Glutathione is also the master detox agent. It regulates all detoxification.
Until recently, you really couldn’t take glutathione effectively as a nutritional supplement because it would get broken down and destroyed before it could provide any benefit. Now we have probiotic bacteria that are actually synthesizing glutathione. This is a huge scientific breakthrough in health and medicine to be able to boost your glutathione levels by taking probiotic bacteria.
Dr. Kondrot: Is this naturally occurring bacteria or genetically modified bacteria? You hear about pharmaceutical companies modifying bacteria to manufacture insulin and things like that.
Ross Pelton: Good question. This is a strain of bacteria that was isolated from the intestinal tract of a healthy 1-year-old child back in 1995. At the time, scientists were surveying a wide range of lactobacillus bacteria trying to find some that had antioxidant activity. They all failed. When they tested lactobacillus fermentum ME-3, it was off the charts.
They’ve spent the last 20 years studying this strain of bacteria trying to figure out how and why it produces such amazing antioxidant activity. Part of the story is that it produces glutathione. It also synthesizes manganese superoxide dismutase, which is another really important antioxidant enzyme.
In human clinical trials, we find that people taking lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 have lower levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol, so you lower your cardiovascular risk. You lower some of the inflammatory markers. You have much higher antioxidant activity all throughout the entire body. This is a huge breakthrough.
I try to get people to realize when they take a daily dose of this probiotic, it’s kind of like ingesting 4 billion to 6 billion little glutathione manufacturing plants every day.
Essential Formulas, the company I’m with, makes lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 available in a brand name of products called Reg’Activ, which stands for active regeneration. This is a brand name that comes out of Europe. There are three Reg’Activ formulas: Cardio Wellness, Immune & Vitality, and Detox & Liver Health. All three of them contain lactobacillus fermentum ME-3. We refer to it as ME-3 for short.
For any of your listeners, Dr. Kondrot, I’d be happy to send out a free copy of an eight-page report I wrote that summarizes the background, history, and clinical trials that have been conducted on lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 along with some information about the importance of glutathione.
Dr. Kondrot: That would be great. How do you they get a hold of that information?
Ross Pelton: They can send an email to me. Just ask for the free report on ME-3. My email address is Ross@NaturalPharmacist.net.
Dr. Kondrot: When we met at the meeting and I found out this product existed, I said, “My goodness! I can’t believe this.” I give many of my macular degeneration and glaucoma patients intravenous glutathione to try to detoxify their body and stimulate healing. The intravenous glutathione is expensive and requires an IV. You’re right. There really isn’t a good way of taking glutathione orally because the stomach acids will destroy the glutathione. There are some glutathione precursors you can take, but they’re not that effective.
If you begin taking this probiotic, will it continue to grow in your stomach? Is there a way to get it to proliferate even more or is it something you should take daily?
Ross Pelton: You need to take it daily. It’s not a normal resident strain of bacteria in most people. We think it will stay in your system 10 to 14 days, but I encourage people to take it on a daily basis.
One of the most proactive things people can do to increase their long-term health is boost their glutathione levels. These Reg’Activ products that contain lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 go way beyond the traditional concept of a probiotic, which we’d normally think of in terms of gut health. Glutathione is so important for every single cell in your body that these products are a whole new ballgame. This is a game changer, being able to increase your glutathione levels on a regular basis.
I’m happy to send out a free report to anybody who asks for it. Email Ross@NaturalPharmacist.net so you can learn a little bit more about how important glutathione is and the strain of bacteria ME-3 which synthesizes glutathione in humans.
Dr. Kondrot: I plan to write about this in my next newsletter that goes out to many of the listeners. I’ll have all that information in there.
This is an exciting trend. Now we’re learning there are certain bacteria that can produce a beneficial substance to help us. Do you think this might be the first bacteria that we can actually identify the benefit of having it in our gut?
Ross Pelton: This is a trend, and there will be much more known about this in the future with all the research that’s happening on probiotics and microbiome.
One of the things scientists are talking about is keystone strains of probiotics. A keystone strain of bacteria is a strain that in relatively low numbers can have a huge biological effect. You don’t need to have large amounts of all the bacteria in your system. Some of them exert a huge benefit in relatively small numbers. They call them subdominant species with big biological effects. There are a number of them that are known. I call ME-3 one of these keystone strains.
There’s another one called enterococcus faecalis TH10, which is in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics. This strain of bacteria is one of the strongest natural antibiotics ever discovered. It kills MRSA, E coli, Candida, and clostridium difficile. It’s one of the strongest antibiotics, and it’s an over-the-counter non-prescription probiotic bacteria. That’s another thing that really good probiotic bacteria do. They produce natural antibiotics in our system, so they’re a critical part of your immune system.
Dr. Kondrot: I think it’s important for us to talk about this. Our ancestors knew ways to replenish he bacteria and keep our gut healthy. We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we’re going to talk about certain foods that can be very beneficial for your gut. Maybe you need to know a little bit more about these foods and include them in your diet on a regular basis. We’ll be right back after this break.
We’re back with “Healthy Vision.” With me is Ross Pelton with exciting information. I hope all of you listening will make an effort to begin to make those changes to keep your gut healthy.
We mentioned before the break about how our ancestors knew how important it was to have a healthy gut by the foods they consumed.
Ross Pelton: For thousands of years, we didn’t have refrigeration to keep our food fresh. People naturally learned how to use the process of fermentation. Things like cabbage, sauerkraut, and kimchi are fermented foods. That was the way people preserved things. When cabbages became ripe, you could eat fresh cabbages for four to six weeks, but for the rest of the year, you couldn’t. They would ferment cabbages and create sauerkraut. It stayed fresh for years when it was fermented. That’s the way our ancestors kept things fresh.
In the process, fermented foods produced good bacteria. That was also the way they were keeping their gut in good shape. Fermented foods tend to create the probiotic bacteria that populate your gastrointestinal tract.
We’ve gone so far off track with our modern-day processed foods and commercial agriculture that we need to do a lot more than just take fermented foods. Most people aren’t going to go through the trouble of making their own fermented foods. We need to take probiotics, but I also emphasize to people that it’s not enough just to take probiotics. You also have to feed them well.
The healthiest gut is the gut that contains a wide diversity of different types of bacteria. We now know that primitive cultures have a diversity of bacteria in their gut that’s about twice as large as that in most Americans. In order to get a diverse microbiome, you have to eat a lot of different types of fibers.
The most important types of food to feed the good bacteria are the multicolored vegetables. The first group of foods is multicolored vegetables. The second group of foods that are important for your microbiome is leafy greens. The third group of foods is colored fruits. Most important is a wide range of multicolored vegetables. This will encourage the growth of a wider range of probiotic bacteria.
You have to stay away from environmental things that will damage your microbiome. We talked about agriculture pesticides and insecticides. There are so many things that we can’t begin to list them all. People are also taking a lot of prescription drugs that are upsetting their microbiome. There are a lot of things challenging the health of our microbiome.
I encourage people to eat healthy, live a healthy lifestyle, take probiotics, and stay from or at least minimize things like alcohol. Certainly stay away from smoking. Things like Tylenol and acetaminophen really damage your liver. That’s the number-one cause of liver transplants. You need to do things like this that will encourage a healthy lifestyle. Stay away from so many of the prescription drugs people are taking that are having a negative effect on people’s lives.
There’s something called polypharmacy, which means taking multiple drugs at the same time. Nobody has researched how damaging that is. I’m always in favor of natural therapies before getting into surgery, radiation, prescription drugs, and so forth. My website is a good resource for people on a lot of different information about natural healing techniques.
Dr. Kondrot: I want to hear a comment on fermented alcoholic drinks like wine and beer. Are they harmful for you or are there some healthy bacteria in those?
Ross Pelton: Alcohol has a negative effect on your microbiome. It depends on the quantity and the regularity that you consume it. Moderation is probably okay for most people. There is biochemical individuality. Everybody is going to react differently, so it depends on the individual how big a negative effect alcohol has on the microbiome.
Dr. Kondrot: Has there been any research on certain nutritional supplements? Are there particular vitamins and minerals that may help improve the health of the gut?
Ross Pelton: I like to encourage people to take a good multivitamin, multi-mineral supplement to support their overall health. That will help support their immune system.
There are things that are anti-inflammatory like the omega-3 fish oils that are incredibly important. Vitamin D is incredibly important. Do anything you can do to reduce inflammation. You want to stay away from the inflammatory foods, like things that are high in omega-6. Those are the inflammatory fats and oils. Get more of the omega-3 fish oils. The longer-chain omega-3s have all the anti-inflammatory effects.
Dr. Kondrot: You made a really great comment that you should eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. I always tell my patients that colorful foods will give you colorful vision. You need to have a variety of fruits and vegetables.
There’s another thing I’m concerned with. Over the years, yogurt has become more and more processed and commercialized. I wonder if you could comment on yogurt. We’re not seeing the natural yogurt that used to be in our grocery store. Do they contain healthy probiotics or minimal at best?
Ross Pelton: Most of the commercial yogurts have more sugar than anything else in them, which feeds Candida and your bad bacteria. Yogurts generally are not a good source of probiotics. That’s not to say there aren’t some good yogurts on the market, but one of the main ingredients in most of the commercial ones is sugar, and they have artificial coloring in them. I do not encourage people to use yogurt as a source for their probiotics.
I want people to get a good, high-quality probiotic product. It’s better to have a multi-strain probiotic product than to take high doses of one or several strains. We understand that balance and diversity are important. A lot of people come up to me and say, “Your probiotics only have 400 million. Mine have 50 billion.” They don’t understand that more is not necessarily better, and too much of a good thing can become a bad thing because you put things out of balance.
Dr. Kondrot: It’s interesting. You made a comment, and I’d like to emphasize the dangers of sugar. You could be eating a very healthy, varied diet with multicolored fruits and vegetables and taking a good probiotic like Reg’Activ. If you’re consuming high amounts of sugar, you’re going to be destroying your gut.
Ross Pelton: Absolutely. Sugar is the bad bacteria, and it feeds Candida yeast. That will throw things out of balance.
Dr. Kondrot: Give us your website again.
Ross Pelton: My website is www.NaturalPharmacist.net. For people who want a copy of the free eight-page report on the Reg’Activ products with lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 that produces glutathione, send a request for the ME-3 paper to Ross@NaturalPharmacist.net.
Ed, you talked about the different-colored vegetables and the healthy diet. I’m going to send you a link to my YouTube video which teaches people how to save a lot of time making salads. People don’t eat salads frequently because it takes so much time. I have a great YouTube video I’ll share with you, and maybe you can share it with your listeners.
Dr. Kondrot: Yes. I have a policy with my patients. I teach them that 70 percent of their diet should be raw, organic vegetables. They really have to shift the diet to raw, organic vegetables and colorful food. That’s one of the most beneficial things they can do. I really didn’t make the connection. I thought they were just getting more nutrients. I didn’t realize they were also helping restore the health of their gut. That makes me more aggressive in telling patients than just telling them it has good nutrition. You’re going to be helping your gut.
Ross Pelton: You’re feeding your microbiome when you eat a wide range of fibers. Fiber is one of the most deficient essential nutrients in the American diet.
Dr. Kondrot: I want to thank you so much. We’re coming to a close here on “Healthy Vision.” You shared a great amount of information with us. I’m going to be writing about this in my next newsletter. This is so important, so thank you so much for taking time. I’m definitely going to have you back on the radio.
Ross Pelton: I’m glad to have met you, and I’m glad we are in touch with each other. I look forward to being back with you and your “Healthy Vision” listeners again.
Dr. Kondrot: Keep up the good work.
This is your host, Dr. Edward Kondrot. I want to thank you so much for joining me this evening. To all of you listening, to your good health and good vision. Keep that gut healthy.