Episode 3: Araceli Benvides, RD, CNS on the Gut-Brain Connection

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SPEAKERS: Dr. Andrew Wong, Araceli Benavides, RD

Welcome to the Capital Integrative Health podcast, a podcast dedicated to transforming the consciousness around what it means to be healthy and understanding the root causes of both disease and wellness. I am Dr. Andrew Wong, co-founder of Capital Integrative health an integrated practice committed to expanding access to holistic root cause medicine to the global community.

We are excited today to be joined by Araceli Benavides one of our amazing functional and integrative nutritionists here at Capital Integrative Health. Araceli works with patients to create evidence-based functional medicine treatment plans to address the root cause of conditions including IBS, SIBO, and many other conditions. Today we’re going to help you better understand the gut-brain connection and how stress directly impacts our digestion and microbiome. This is a conversation for anyone struggling with gut issues who would like to make sustainable changes to improve their digestion.

Dr. Wong:

Welcome, Araceli.

Araceli:

Thank you so much Dr. Wong for the invite. I’m very excited to be able to talk to you all about a little bit of my background and also how we work with patients and gut issues.

Dr. Wong:

Yes, great to have you on the podcast here, and first of all just tell us how you got started in nutrition while living in Peru.

Araceli:

Yes, so I actually have a long history with nutrition. I had a nutritionist myself when I was six years old. So I was struggling with some heart conditions that I was able to manage just through nutrition and lifestyle changes and didn’t have to go through surgery or anything. So that really got me very interested in like root causes of different conditions and how to manage that with nutrition and natural medicine so.

Dr. Wong:

Wow, that’s really started in your childhood then.

Araceli:

Yes, it’s been a long time.

Dr. Wong:

Yes, that’s amazing that you’re able to treat those heart conditions with nutrition and lifestyle and avoid surgery. That’s so amazing. And what made you interested in functional medicine?

Araceli:

Well then, I was trying to combine nutrition with other like natural interventions. And it was then when I found the masters in Integrative Medicine at Georgetown and then I found Dr. Wong. I was so lucky I learned about Functional Medicine that really combined a lot of like nutrition lifestyle and looking at the root causes through Functional Medicine. So, I actually learned it there through the masters and was able to join the IFM as well for that.

Dr. Wong:

And the rest is history, and certainly, we’re very lucky. I feel very lucky to have met you at Georgetown and we have been working together for about two years now which is amazing. It’s been an amazing journey here and could you share with us how you started working at Capital Integrative Health and what you’re doing now?

Araceli:

Yes. So actually, after the master’s I started here my practicum. So I stayed here during the summer and I was a clinical assistant first and I’m helping you doctor one with a lot of the visits and also doing a lot of the testing. Like the brain scans and the vital scans and we include the stomach acid or cytosol different procedures that we do here in the clinic. So I was learning about them all and just helping like with the scribing and other things throughout the visits which helped me to learn so much from other practitioners. So that was great. And then I transitioned to actually start to see patients and do functional nutrition in the clinic and working with a lot of patients that struggle with like gut issues and many other things.

Dr. Wong:

And we know that the gut really is the gateway to many other organ systems and also imbalances in the body so how has your experience been with working with the gut issues but also how that’s translated to other issues that patients have had?

Araceli:

Yes, so we try to start with the gut first because we know how the gut microbiome is being affecting many other things like the immune system, brain health, hormone balance so and even detox right now we see a lot of patients being affected by toxins but we always want to make sure the gut is healthy so that you can continue with other treatments regarding hormones or detox or anything else that the patients need to work on.

Dr. Wong:

And even Hippocrates one of the founders of western medicine said to paraphrase him he said that the gut is the foundation of both illness and wellness.

Araceli:

Right.

Dr. Wong:

So I think this is where functional medicine also kind of comes in and focuses a lot on the gut as one of the first initial evaluation treatments.

Araceli:

True it’s so important.

Dr. Wong:

Yes. Now so many are struggling with digestive issues from bloating and gas to loose stool and constipation so many many issues that kind of get lumped up into what’s called IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome and it’s estimated that at least 12 percent of the population which I think is underestimation really but has IBS how often do you see patients with gut issues in general in your practice?

Araceli:

Right, so here at CIH we really see patients struggling with some sort of like gut imbalances every day and this is something very common to see and that we need to address since the beginning. So yeah, I would say something we see every day.

Dr. Wong:

A hundred percent.

Araceli:

A hundred percent, all the time.

Dr. Wong:

And now that we’re talking about kind of the gut-brain connection and how stress directly affects our digestion and gut health how often do you find that stress is a contributor to poor digestion?

Araceli:

Yeah, we see that all the time so that’s a really important topic since we have a lot of experience with patients that we treat certain imbalances like for example certain infections like candida or SIBO or h pylori but then they don’t get better or they get these infections back and a lot of the times its just stress affecting either motility affecting digestive output that we’ll touch more about stomach acid digestive enzymes and also motility can be affected by stress. So, if all of these things are being impaired it’s very hard to get rid of any infection or anything that is causing the gut imbalance to begin with.

Dr. Wong:

So great, let’s get into the specifics on a stressed gut and what that means physiologically and what are those physiological consequences of stress on the gut. So what is the difference between eating while stressed versus eating while relaxed? I think that’s a very foundational question but it’s one that’s so important because we all kind of know we’ve all done this before we’ve all been in that situation we’ve been kind of eating on the run or eating while stressed so you know. What is that difference? How does that kind of manifest physiologically there?

Araceli:

Yes, so that’s very common to see nowadays people trying to multitask and just eat while doing something else or in front of screens. So basically when our body is stressed we have a sympathetic dominance so that means in the past we will be like running away from a tiger or just having to fight against something and our body is going to prioritize our vital organs so brain heart lungs and just like getting the blood flowing and just helping us to fight or flight. In this case, the digestion is not going to be prioritized. So we’re not going to be secreting a lot of stomach acid, a lot of digestive enzymes our motility is not going to be as fast because we of course don’t want to be necessarily digesting when we’re like in that amount of stress. So, on the other hand when we do take a deep breath and we’re like relaxed and ready to eat if we’re eating mindfully taking all of our senses to our food and everything, we do secrete more stomach acid digestive enzymes our motility works better. So, we’re going to have like a more successful digestion and we’re not going to have like big pieces of food lingering in our small intestine that it can lead to bacterial overgrowth and many things. So, it’s definitely complex situations.

Dr. Wong:

Yes, and it sounds like what you had said, to paraphrase what you said that the stress affects blood flow and that the blood flow going to the brain to the other vital organs the heart to the muscles to the lungs is taking away blood flow from the gut. Which is the main digestive organs and when this happens then there’s not enough blood flow and not enough sort of energy going to those organs to produce the digestive enzyme the stomach acid and things like that. Why is stomach acid so important? We talk about stomach acid a lot in our clinic and how stomach acid helps digest the food. But why is it so important is to people have too little stomach acid or too much or you know I think you know we know that from people going to the doctors that maybe put them on anti-acid medications because they feel like they have too much and maybe just talking to that a bit.

Araceli:

Yes, so digestion definitely starts in our mouth but we digest a little bit carbohydrates in our mouth but then where it really starts in the stomach so we start to break down protein, thanks to stomach acid. It activates the enzyme that we need to break down protein and we know protein is so important for the amino acids to make neurotransmitters and to make protein in general, we know it’s so important in our body so we need to break we need the stomach acid to break down protein and we also need the stomach acid to protect us. That’s sort of like one of our lines of barrier to make sure that we if we’re getting any like bacteria coming in through our mouth. We know our mouth has a lot of bacteria which is normal but when we swallow all of that we definitely want to make sure we have enough stomach acid to control that and make sure we’re not getting a lot of bacteria further down that we don’t necessarily want.

Dr. Wong:

Got it. So the other thing since we’re recording this during the time of COVID is that there’s a lot of talk now about vaccines and antibodies and are people producing enough antibodies to the vaccine? So, antibodies are really immunoglobulin so if you think about it that way we need protein we need an adequate protein to make those antibodies.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

And to help our immune system.

Araceli:

That’s a very good point and also the amount of stomach acid like that mixture of the food with this with the acid once it goes to a small and or small intestine if it is like acidic enough it’s going to stimulate more digestive enzymes so it’s going to help the rest of the digestion like downstream that is also important for the breakdown of other nutrients and absorption of them to make sure.

Dr. Wong:

Now, how common do you find that it is in the practice that you see you know with patients that you see, is stomach acid being low? How common is that?

Araceli:

That is really common so we do have a stomach acid test here in the office. We use the Heidelberg test, and most of the time we see patients with low stomach acid. We rarely have seen like just like probably one or two cases with like high stomach acid but we do see patients with reflux or GERD heartburn coming with low stomach acid and then most likely because the upper or lower esophageal sphincter relaxes when there’s not enough like stomach acid. So then, if you lay down you can get that acid coming up and causing the sensation of like reflux or heartburn even when you have low stomach.

Dr. Wong:

So, this traditional idea that reflex and heartburn is related to too much stomach acid might be erroneous actually because I think if what you said, you know it makes sense physiologically. If there’s low stomach acid you’re opening up that lower esophageal sphincter so someone might not have enough stomach acid in the stomach but there might be too much stomach acid in the esophagus related to that.

Araceli:

Yes, totally.

Dr. Wong:

That’s great! That’s a great point. Stomach acid, also as you said, is affected by stress. So if there’s low stomach acid and it’s very prevalent in the population and the most common cause of low stomach acid is chronic stress. Then, what is the root cause? There we have to look at that stress again, how that affects that stomach acid?

Araceli:

Yes, we definitely want to work on balancing the nervous system to make sure we optimize our stomach acid production.

Dr. Wong:

So in a way, it’s not only what we’re eating but how we’re eating who we’re eating it with even why we’re eating.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

All of these factors and what is the context of food? and you know how is food nourishing us? I think these are all questions that maybe we don’t really think about so much we always think about a lot of times we think about what are we going to eat what’s our diet plan like you know things like that.

Araceli:

Yes. So definitely taking more like mindfulness into consideration around food how does.

Dr. Wong:

How does stress affect even the concept of diets and of the idea of you know following a diet plan in other words if someone’s if you give someone a nutrition plan and they’re under a lot of stress how does that interact in terms of their ability success rate to you know to follow that?

Araceli:

Yes, it definitely makes it harder for compliance and nowadays we’re all very like stressed or having like lives that imply a lot of like timing and we don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to like cooking and planning ahead of time. So we do need to take into consideration giving like easy options things that you can do fast thankfully, a lot of things with like veggies can be like fresh vegetables. You can do them fast but yeah, so like stress. We definitely need to know that it is very important to take some time to plan ahead for meals and that is what’s gonna make us keep on going? So we need to spend some time on that for sure.

Dr. Wong:

So when someone is stressed what should they eat? This is maybe not a very specific question. But, what do you recommend people eat when they’re stressed and nutritionally?

Araceli:

So more like adrenal-like situations?

Dr. Wong:

I suppose just, let’s say someone’s stressed and tired. Yeah, it could be adrenal. What do you typically say to people?

Araceli:

Yeah, so we definitely want to make sure we have enough protein in the diet to make sure things are like working properly. So easy things that you could do like even if it’s like things related to chickpeas and like hummus can be something like patients are like good to go, a go-to. But yes, it can also be like fresh vegetables any other sort of like seafood or really like healthy fats are also really important so like nuts or avocados or just like deep very like independent and like if they’re any like gut issues that we need to take into consideration. Things like that.

Dr. Wong:

Okay, I’ll get back to the stress and sugar connection in a little bit. Let’s go, still, go into the deep dive on the physiology here. So how does stress impact the presence of the microbiome? Meaning the good bacteria the bad bacteria. How does that work? Does stress affect the the the different bacteria in the gut?

Araceli:

Yes, so stress can also affect the gut microbiome and it can also affect what is really popular right now leaky gut it can also help affect the permeability of the gut. So we could see that because the stomach acid is being affected the digestive enzymes are being affected it is most likely that we’re going to have like undigested food and that’s going to affect the replication and overgrowth of not quote-unquote like bad bacteria or like infections in our gut and also stress is gonna reduce our immune system so it’s gonna reduce our ability to fight off the bad bacteria so that can make the bad bacteria more like prevalent and that, of course, affects good bacteria as well to be lower.

Dr. Wong:

So stress will affect both low stomach acid, low digestive enzymes even low secretory IgA which is that mucosal immunoglobulin.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

Okay and then can cause leaky gut so in a way it really affects all of the digestion in a way.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

No matter what you’re eating if you’re stressed that might affect what you’re actually taking in.

Araceli:

Exactly.

Dr. Wong:

Well, that’s so incredible. That’s so profound because again looking at what we’re eating but then how we’re eating it. What is the context? and how are we eating related to, you know, screens and running around? Are we eating kind of sitting out in nature and with people that we love? and things like that it’s super important. And then what is the relationship between stress and inflammation? Because I know, that inflammation can affect a leaky gut and everything.

Araceli:

Yes. So well you can probably talk more about that than me doctor you’re very very good with like the inflammatory cytokines and everything. But yes, when we’re stretched we will be like more prone to inflammation and as you mentioned with like sugar. When we’re stressed we tend to go more for like sweet things and just like comfort foods and that’s what our body is sort of like trying to get to increase serotonin and make us feel good. But when we go for those food choices that’s definitely not gonna help our inflammatory like inflammation like overall in our body so.

Dr. Wong:

Why when, why do we go? That’s I mean, I find that to be true as well. When we’re stressed we go for these really quick energy food choices maybe high carbs or sugar something that tastes really good to us. Why do we do that? and that’s just always, yeah, a 64-dollar question I think.

Araceli:

Yeah, that’s really tricky. I actually was reading this book, The Four Day Win trying to understand more like the psychology behind eating. I know it’s definitely like trying to get that boost of like serotonin or like basically like certain or like hormones that are gonna make us like feel good. But it’s like a short term and then you’re probably not gonna keep that sensation for long. But yeah, we know like there’s different, like hormone imbalances that can lead us to that. Do you have anything?

Dr. Wong:

Yeah. So it sounds like stress in the setting of you know chronic stress or acute stress even might lower the serotonin level and a higher carb diet will increase that serotonin we do see often people premenstrually as well when the estrogen drops the serotonin drops and then people crave chocolate or other you know chocolate-covered pretzels. I don’t know you know some sugary foods and that’s going to help their energy short-term but then long-term it might cause some yeast overgrowth or even you know SIBO or different things like that.

Araceli:

Right. And spikes in glucose that then will end up to secreting too much insulin and then dropping glucose that is going to make you hungry tired and probably irritable as well.

Dr. Wong:

So, this hypoglycemia low blood sugar can also be stressful too and then many people are struggling with constipation or slow motility not having bowel movements sometimes maybe once a week even this is a major contributor to conditions like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or what’s called SIBO. So could you talk a little bit about SIBO, what that is and how stress affects motility and SIBO would be great?

Araceli:

Yes. So one of the main root causes of SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is small, slow motility. So, we know that slow motility can lead to having this food that we’re trying to digest for too long in our small intestine and that the small amount of bacteria that we have there start to feed off of that and start reproducing and like having too much bacteria there. So when we have too much bacteria there it’s gonna ferment our food produce a lot of gas and they can produce gas like methane or hydrogen and that can affect us having diarrhea constipation, gas bloating and irregular different things symptoms related to SIBO. So yeah. So that will be basically what SIBO is and the slow motility and the stress again. Because our body is like prioritizing other things and not digestion. Our motility is not going to go as fast but there could be other reasons why we have cell motility. Like for example low thyroid can also be another factor.

Dr. Wong:

Got it. So it sounds like in order to survive we do certain things with their body to try to survive but to really thrive and that would impact gut health. We have to learn how to reduce and or manage stress.

Araceli:

Yes, it’s so important.

Dr. Wong:

So, let’s take a deep dive into how to manage and reduce stress. So, how do we know if you know there’s some monitors there’s some vital scans, and different things that we do here in the clinic? But if you’re kind of walking in the shopping mall if you’re outside. If you’re sitting at work or at home. How do you know if you’re in rest and digest versus a fight-or-flight situation? How do you know in your body?

Araceli:

Well, definitely our pulse can be an indicator so if you typically check your pulse if you’re having a higher pulse rate or like heart rate that could be an indicator that you’re more towards like fight-or-flight state and also like blood pressure can come up when we’re like on a fight or flight and breathing when we’re not like when we’re breathing very shallow and we’re not like deep breathing and tend to like breathe a little bit faster that can also be an indicator.

Dr. Wong:

I agree with that. It’s probably time to check our pulses throughout the day here. Make sure they’re healthy and we know that there’s a body-mind connection. There’s this idea that the body and the mind inform each other so let’s kind of talk about how the gut and brain also kind of connect a little bit more with each other. How does the gut affect brain function or brain health? and how does the brain affect gut health what’s the connection there?

Araceli:

Yes. So, the gut-brain connection is very important so we know there’s not a lot of like neurons actually in our gut as well and our gut plays a huge role in producing neurotransmitters. For example, they say like even now. They say like up to 90 percent of our serotonin can be made in our gut and that of course can affect like our mood and brain health and mental health a lot. So it’s important to make sure gut is healthy to make sure that our neurotransmitters are also in balance. Serotonin, Dopamine like can affect focus and how we feel and on the other side we know that the gut can also affect our digestion. So we need the vagus nerve to be activated and we know the enteric nervous system is also very important for the gut. So for those to be activated and working and sending the right signals to our gut to produce the things that we need for digestion, we need to be relaxed. So everything that we’ve been talking about trying to basically reduce stress that we’ll get into that as well.

Dr. Wong:

So, in a way, the vagus is kind of like our internet information super highway that kind of goes back and forth between the gut and brain, brain and gut, and communicate. So we really talk about the mind-body connection and mind-body balance. But in a way the mind and body are very much the same. They’re just different kind of ways to think about it. The mind has the, you know, mental health thoughts and emotions and feelings and everything have physiological consequences and then of course the physiology of the gut will affect the brain and the mind as well. It’s so interesting to me how a lot of these silos that we’ve talked about a lot in traditional medicine like neurology or gastroenterology or cardiology even you know all these things kind of get kind of they all these kind of artificial distinctions start going away when we realize that all these organs we’re talking about the brain the gut and the heart all have neurons.

Araceli:

They’re all connected.

Dr. Wong:

They’re all neural incentives and they’re all connected. Yes, it’s amazing. So we talked about the vagus nerve. How can we support our vagus nerve? How can we support this rest and digest relaxation kind of response so that we can digest our food better? So we can have better health and so we can go from surviving to thriving.

Araceli:

Yes. So there’s definitely a few exercises that we can use to stimulate the vagus nerve. Everything when we’re like deep breathing we’re gonna switch from sympathetic nervous system that is fight or flight to parasympathetic nervous system that is rest and digest so we could do four seven eight breathing that would be like inhaling four, holding our breath for seven seconds and then exhaling for the count of eight. That’s a way making sure that you’re like extending your belly when you’re breathing to make sure that a relaxation response is coming in could be an option and then we know that in adding the alternating nostril breathing. So trying to breathe through one, let’s say the right nostril in and then exhaling through the other side and then inhaling it exhaling and alternating this can also help for a vagus nerve. There’s some type of like breathing like that with yoga as well. That can be really helpful. Another thing could be gargling. So vibration through the like throat area can like help stimulate the vagus nerve. So gargling like twice per day the solution. It can vary but as long as that sensation of like vibration there that could be through gargling or can be through humming or chanting if you’re in the car or the shower and now when he’s listening you can like chant as how as loud as you can that can definitely help.

Dr. Wong:

Or maybe when everyone’s listening if you want to do a concert or something.

Araceli:

Yes, if you want to do a karaoke that would.

Dr. Wong:

That would be a way to do it.

Araceli:

Yeah, fun.

Dr. Wong:

Yes well eat some good food with friends and do some karaoke I think that’s a great way to digest that food. You just say it right.

Araceli:

Yeah, great combination.

Dr. Wong:

And talking about vagus nerve. Let’s talk about pets. I know you just got a recent pet. So if you could just introduce everyone to that.

Araceli:

Yes, I adopted Pancho. So he’s a rescue dog from Puerto Rico and he’s amazing definitely. Pets can help with like reduce stress and just like um they’re so great so they give a lot of like support for that.

Dr. Wong:

We got some pets during the pandemic. Especially these two rabbits that we have. It’s really been amazing for everyone and you know it does definitely reduce stress. I think to have some animals around. So if you have animals around your friends that have animals a good thing to connect with them because you know it’s really connecting back to nature and we know that animal departed nature we’re also animals, yes and this is kind of what is really healing to us. Other general tips for stress reduction, anything else that you found either yourself personally or professionally with your patients?

Araceli:

Yes. I really like well, meditation. In general, there’s definitely some good applications out there like inside timer that have like good either guided meditations or like music that you can put in the background because sometimes our minds are very like overactive and we when we some people find it hard when you sit up down like quiet to just like keep the mind of other things and to do some things that you want to plan ahead for your day. So to quiet down the mind there’s definitely like background music that you can use with those. That I really like, especially like before bedtime. I’ve also done in the past like self-hypnotherapy with videos to try to like even relax more profoundly then that’s also a good thing.

Dr. Wong:

Yeah. I found that to be helpful as well. Yeah, hypnotherapy tapping is great.

Araceli:

Yes, tapping.

Dr. Wong:

Acupuncture and big fan of as well. Many things and we have some of these here in our clinic as well for sure. How can you support yourself around mealtime to reduce stress so you’re eating a meal you’re trying to relax but someone’s you know bugging you or shouting something at you or maybe you’re thinking of some things you have to do you know those type of things. But, how do you support yourself around mealtime? That’s a really great topic to talk about.

Araceli:

We always discuss with patients trying to make mealtimes like only for that so try to avoid screens at the same time or trying to avoid doing other things while you’re eating and just dedicating that time for food. If I always try to do like even like a minute or so of like deep breathing before we start to like reset because if you do like about like five to six cycles of the deep breathing should help you change the balance of your nervous system to help you be on the parasympathetic side of the rest and digest type of things. So I know it’s not realistic to do like a lot of things during the day while we’re trying to get things done so even if it’s a minute or two that could definitely make a difference.

Dr. Wong:

And then it sends your body into this sense of okay this is a sacred space now this is a time that I can have for myself to really nourish my body so we’re nourishing our bodies with nutrients with food but we’re also nourishing it with that sacred space you know that mindfulness.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

We really need it, especially nowadays. So much more now, I would say sort of if the default mode is you know the mind always being on we have to do something active like that.

Araceli:

Yes. And we want to focus on chewing well like a lot of the time we don’t even think about it and that’s sort of like where everything starts. So if we chew well our food and we’re mindful about that can also help the rest of our digestion.

Dr. Wong:

How many times should we chew per bite would you say?

Araceli:

Yes I know there’s some like research out there or somewhere where I read that it ideally should be like 36 times but I know that sometimes when I’ve tried to do that it just like it gets to the point that it’s depending on what you’re eating.

Dr. Wong:

I wouldn’t want to chew hummus 36 times.

Araceli:

I know right yeah so I guess as long as you feel like it is like watery enough and just like good to go.

Dr. Wong:

And like adding that mindfulness and savoring it that savoring that the chewing might allow you to do that too. Have you heard of the slow food movement? I think it originated maybe from Italy but this idea that people come together and sort of the antidote to fast food eating and you know eating on the run is this idea that people sit down and have like a slow food conversation with friends and family loved ones with your pets.

Araceli:

Yes. Yeah, I’ve heard about it but I feel like we don’t practice that over here a lot like in general in the US. So we definitely should take that into consideration.

Dr. Wong:

Yes. I think this whole idea even of the slow food movement, is probably how our ancestors used to eat most of the time. Whereas now, most of the time we’re probably eating fast food even if we’re not eating fast food exactly you know we’re not eating like burger king or something like that necessarily but we’re eating fast and so I wonder if that’s also harming our guts you know if we do that.

Araceli:

Definitely.

Dr. Wong:

Yeah. Great all right. We’ll get on to a couple of other things more, some personal questions if that’s okay. So, do you have a morning routine if so what does that look like for you?

Araceli:

Yes. I was doing the miracle morning that actually includes a great book Doctor recommended it to me so if anyone wants to go ahead and try. It’s definitely really good. You do some like scribing, some silence, some affirmations visualization some exercise and reading in the morning so you don’t have it sounds like a lot and sounds like it takes hours. But you can actually do for a couple of minutes each one and definitely helps. So, I was doing that prior to getting Pancho. So, now that I have Pancho. The routine switched a little bit because it includes the walk in the morning outside so he definitely is a way he wakes up very early. So, we need to be out around six so that keeps me moving around six and being like outside getting the natural light which right now with the weather is great. Yeah, so trying to put more intention on that like not taking my phone with me trying to like do some of the breathing outside and the movement and the walking and getting the intentions out there. Like instead of doing it I’m just like sitting the time.

Dr. Wong:

Especially now in the summer in DC. This is a good time, Summer, Fall, Spring. This is a great time to get outside. Yes, I agree. You know doing some of that I do some Qigong and different things like that. But I think the Pancho routine is like a great built-in routine you get outside in the morning you connect with nature.

Araceli:

There’s no way to skip it.

Dr. Wong:

You can’t skip it right.

Araceli:

No.

Dr. Wong:

What happens if you? Well, I guess you wouldn’t try to skip it, but he would let you know I guess.

Araceli:

Oh yes! Yes. Okay, he’s really really good. He’s ready to go yes.

Dr. Wong:

What book or podcast are you enjoying the most right now?

Araceli:

Yes, so I’ve been doing, I’ve been reading both The Four Day Win and the Transforming Trauma. So The Four Day Win that I talked a little bit about. Just like this trying to see like the psychology of eating and trying to work with like behavior change and how to get people that that part of like we know what we need to eat and we know. What we that we need to exercise and what do we need to do but why we don’t do it a lot of the time. So, just trying to understand that and it gives a lot of I like that book I haven’t finished but it gives a lot of like interactive things so you need to write things down and it makes you do things along the way which is very interesting. If anyone wants to read it and of course Transforming Trauma that has been great for.

Dr. Wong:

Transforming Trauma by Dr. James Gordon.

Araceli:

Yes.

Dr. Wong:

Friend of ours here. Amazing pioneering Integrative and Holistic Psychiatrist and he writes a lot on trauma has been doing a lot internationally. And the book the Four Day Win is by who?

Araceli:

Martha Beck.

Dr. Wong:

Martha Beck. Okay, you’ll have to send me the link. I’d love to check that out thank you. Great. And well, you are an Integrated Functional Nutritionist and Practitioner. So what is your favorite meal to make?

Araceli:

Oh. That’s a really good question. So I love Peruvian food so, definitely like ceviche is my go-to. Yeah, there’s it’s harder to like get like fresh fish and things but that’s definitely my go-to I love.

Dr. Wong:

Ceviche. Okay great. Yeah, there’s a couple of Peruvian restaurants around here. I’m not sure if they have ceviche but it probably isn’t as good as Lima or as anything. And what is your favorite thing to do every day to cultivate joy? I suppose a Pancho is there.

Araceli:

Yes. Definitely! So right now, well I did horseback riding most of my life so that was definitely one of the activities that I enjoyed the most. But here, just the fact of like sharing being in nature with Pancho that really like makes my day. Really, I enjoy it a lot.

Dr. Wong:

Great! So, what are your top three tips? Let’s say to think about stress and how that affects gut health and what can people do to take away you know from this conversation today about you know how to manage that stress and help their gut health?

Araceli:

Yes. I would say, as a take away from the conversation today. Definitely being more mindful around food would be the most important. I know that stress can affect like if you’re, if you feel like you have any gut issues that haven’t been able to resolve we need to take into consideration stress. So taking deep breaths is sort of like the easiest way. It’s free, doesn’t take a lot of time and everyone can do it. So taking a couple of like deep breaths a day or like a couple times per day so that it can help like being mindful around food and just like take. Yeah, but those would be my two takeaways and of course like exercise and movement can also help for balancing the nervous system.

Dr. Wong:

Yes to connect that. Mind-body back. Yes, thank you so much Araceli for joining us. Love to have you back we’ll discuss some functional testing I think?

Araceli:

Yes that would be great!

Dr. Wong:

That’d be amazing! And if you joined this conversation please take a moment to leave us a review. It helps our podcast to reach more listeners and thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.

Araceli:

Thank you so much, Dr. Wong.

Dr. Wong:

Thanks, Araceli.

Araceli:

Thank you!