Episode 241 — Trust Your GUT Feelings
Guest: Will Cole • Date: January 30, 2025
Episode Overview
We’re honored to have Dr. Will Cole, functional medicine expert and author of Gut Feelings, share his perspectives. His book explores the powerful link between emotional and physical health, including how healing your gut can transform your family’s well-being. You will learn actionable insights on improving diet, prioritizing self-care, and fostering a healing environment. The secret this week is… Trust Your GUT Feelings
About Will Cole
Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the globe, starting one of the world's first functional medicine telehealth centers over a decade ago. Named one of the top 50 functional and integrative doctors in the nation, Dr. Will Cole provides a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems. He is also the host of the popular The Art Of Being Well podcast and the New York Times bestselling author ofIntuitive Fasting,Ketotarian,The Inflammation Spectrum,andGut Feelings.
You’ll Discover
How The Gut Is The Seed of the Soul (5:46)
Why It’s Bi-Directional (7:28)
The First Ingredient That Disrupts The Gut/Brain Axis (12:00)
The Second Ingredient That Disrupts The Gut/Brain Axis (15:30)
The Third Ingredient That Disrupts The Gut/Brain Axis (16:12)
The Fourth Ingredient That Disrupts The Gut/Brain Axis (17:07)
What To Do After Cleaning Up The Diet (20:32)
Why You Need a “Proverbial Cast” (25:15)
What is Shameflammation (29:41)
The Power of Meta-Physical Meals (35:55)
Referenced in This Episode
Full Transcript
Dr. Will Cole [00:00:00]:
We say things like gut feelings, gut instinct. I just feel it in my gut, butterflies in my stomach. Somehow our ancestors knew that the gut was a seed of the soul. And research is catching up with antiquity that we have a lot of solid signs showing that the gut and brain are formed from the same fetal tissue. 95% of serotonin is made in the gut. 50% of dopamine is made in the gut. A lot of autism researchers over the past 15, 20 years are looking at the gut brain axis and the gut brain immune axis as far as inflammation is concerned as it relates to not just asd, but larger brain optimization, brain balancing in our world?
Cass Arcuri [00:00:38]:
Want to truly be the best parent.
Cass Arcuri [00:00:40]:
You can be and help your child thrive after their autism diagnosis? This podcast is for all in parents like you who know more is possible for your child.
Len Arcuri [00:00:49]:
With each episode we reveal a secret that empowers you to be the parent your child needs now. Saving you time, energy and money and helping you focus on what truly matters most, your child. I'm Cass. And I'm Len.
Dr. Will Cole [00:01:02]:
Welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets.
Len Arcuri [00:01:16]:
Hello and welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets. It's Len and today I'm excited to introduce Dr. Will Cole and he is a leading functional medicine expert and the author of several game changing books including Ketotarian Intuitive Fasting and his latest, Gut Feelings Healing the shame fueled relationship between what you eat and how you feel. And this incredible book really reveals the powerful connection between your emotional and your physical health and how healing your gut can unlock better health and happiness for you and your family. As parents with children with autism, we know how critical diet and gut health are to our child's development. But what many don't realize is that parental self care is equally vital. Dr. Cole's insights on shameflammation, the damaging combination of stress, shame and inflammation, are eye opening and empowering.
Len Arcuri [00:02:19]:
In this episode, we'll discuss how to make better food choices for your child, prioritizing your own health and creating a healthy environment for your entire family. This conversation is going to be packed with tips and inspiration to help you and your child thrive. And the secret this week is trust your gut feelings. Welcome Dr. Cole.
Dr. Will Cole [00:02:40]:
Great to see you.
Len Arcuri [00:02:41]:
Great to see you again. We go kind of way back, I think, with the autism conference circuit that I would kind of consistently attend. You've given presentations that have really shifted how I was even looking at food and I know you've been talking about this for quite a while and I'm sure to someone like you, a lot of the concepts you talk about should seem obvious now, but I know for a lot of parents they're really not. So with the books I mentioned, which all have been very helpful for me personally, let me hand it off to you in terms of the work you do and why, specifically for a family where autism is something that's relevant for them, why food and really focusing and prioritizing food can make such a huge difference.
Dr. Will Cole [00:03:28]:
So over 16 years ago at this point, I started the first functional medicine telehealth clinic. So my day job is here. I rarely leave this room. So 10 hours a day, for a long time, I've had the blessing and the sacred responsibility of being able to talk to people around the world and about their health, about their children's health. And oftentimes they're intimately connected, their health and their children's health and how we can not just change one person, but a whole family culture. And. Yeah, so the books are just a natural ripple effect of my focus with our telehealth patients. They're just.
Dr. Will Cole [00:04:06]:
The books were all born out of conversations that I had with telehealth patients, actually. So Ketotarian was a book about sort of a Mediterranean whole foods, nutrient dense ketogenic diet and how to do cyclical keto. And it really was born out of talking about the research of the brain, benefits of at least cyclical ketosis and how you can. Beta hydroxybutyrate is the ketone that your body naturally produces in ketosis. There's a lot of exciting research around it, lowering neuroinflammation. And we know from research that in many people with autism and on the spectrum there can be a neuroinflammatory component. And so that was what ketotarium is about. My second book was called the Inflammation Spectrum.
Dr. Will Cole [00:04:54]:
Sort of a deeper dive in inflammation and how food and non food things impacts inflammation, things like stress and trauma. And then third book was Intuitive fasting. It's sort of a mindful, flexible. It was in my mind when I wrote it was a keto terrian part two, because it was using fasting and a fasting mimicking diet, which ketogenic diet is fasting mimicking to enhance brain function, to support health span, improve energy, lower inflammation levels, support gut health. And then Gut Feelings is the most recent book. And that was really much born out of our conversations with telehealth patients of gut. And this sort of cliche that we say in our modern vernacular of gut feelings, right? We say the things like gut feelings, gut instinct. I just feel it in my gut Butterflies in my stomach.
Dr. Will Cole [00:05:43]:
The that somehow our ancestors knew that the gut was a seed of the soul. And in research is catching up with antiquity, that we have a lot of solid signs showing that the gut and brain are formed from the same fetal tissue. 95% of serotonin is made in the gut. 50% of dopamine is made in the gut. A lot of autism research researchers over the past 15, 20 years are looking at sort of the gut brain axis and the gut brain immune axis as far as inflammation is concerned as it relates to not just asd, but larger, you know, brain optimization, brain balancing in our world. So, yeah, the books are just those conversations. And it's a passion of mine. It's a passion of mine to really empower people with tools to not only improve their health, but their family's health as well.
Dr. Will Cole [00:06:36]:
So food is definitely a, a part of it, but as something that I talk about throughout all the books, but specifically in Gut Feelings, yes, it's important about how we feed our body with breakfast, lunch and dinner, but what are we feeding our head and our heart on a daily basis? And it's a lot more nebulous because it's more linear and prescriptive for me to say, well, these foods have been shown to do X, Y and Z. Have more of those, have less of these foods that have been shown to harm your body. It's more black and white and cut and dried. It's a lot more complex and, you know, it's very much more complex to unpack when you're looking at things like chronic stress and unresolved trauma and even trauma that families go through together of seasons of their life. But it's a big topic that I wanted to tackle in Gut Feelings to talk about this bi directional relationship between physical health and mental, emotional, spiritual health, to use that cliche of gut feelings. We have gut and we have feelings. How does the physiological, the physical stuff, using a gut as a piece of that puzzle, how does that impact our feelings? And then conversely, how does the feelings part, the mental, emotional, spiritual stuff, impact our physical health so that both and not either or approach that we have in functional medicine? So again, this is just a functional medicine approach on these sort of mind, body facets, and how stress and trauma can be stored in the body, but then conversely, an unhealthy gut, environmental toxins, et cetera, can impact our brain and our immune system. So that's in a nutshell, what that journey's been like in running the telehealth clinic and writing the books.
Len Arcuri [00:08:21]:
Great. And I appreciate that backdrop and that bidirectionality is really a key concept. Right. Because they're so interrelated, your emotions, what you eat and vice versa. And I've heard you talk many times, and I don't think the point can be made too much is that while food is such a huge area of opportunity, it is so unique to the individual in terms of exactly what's going to be beneficial for them, what factors influence what's going to help them thrive. And that's where it's not as simple as, hey, food's really important. Eat these couple foods and do this diet. And I know all parents are trying to simplify things in life and they'd love to know what is the diet, what is everyone else doing? You know, kids who have made great progress, and that's the challenge here, is if you embrace that food matters, which not all parents do, because it's inconvenient, but if you do, then it becomes a little bit daunting in terms of, okay, well, exactly what's going to help? My child, who is such a picky eater, seems to have huge GI issues.
Len Arcuri [00:09:30]:
Clearly what the rest of the family's eating doesn't seem to work for my child. So it can be daunting to try to even step up to the plate to navigate.
Dr. Will Cole [00:09:39]:
Yeah, certainly. And look, I think it's for many of us, that's why the mindset's so important. Right. The head and your heart, your relationship with the thing, whatever the thing is, whether it's a food protocol or supplement protocol or a biohack wellness tool, physical activity, if somebody has inner stress and inner discord and resistance and anxiety obsession around the thing, stressing about healthy things isn't good for our health. Right. And that's easier said than done. But to at least check ourselves and then give tools within the book to start having more, to start to infuse a grace and a lightness back into the thing of wellness, whether it's food or anything within wellness. So, yeah, it's important.
Dr. Will Cole [00:10:28]:
And look, I think when you're talking about food and whether it's autoimmunity as a whole or autism spectrum disorders as a specific, is that we call it a spectrum for a reason. Right. There's a lot of bio individuality. So there's not going to be a cookie cutter, one size fits all approach within food or any aspect of wellness that's going to be applicable or helpful for everybody. So I think that's where understanding through health history labs for us clinical experience we can kind of know the science and also the art of how we can help to optimize somebody's health because it is so different. So it's easy to say, well yeah, it's this cookie cutter thing, everybody should doing this. There are some low hanging things that people could be doing, certainly we could talk about that. But beyond the low hanging things that maybe most humans should do, there is a lot of nuance and context that can be lost.
Dr. Will Cole [00:11:27]:
And it's not all cookie cutter. And it's really understanding someone's own bio individuality that really that the key can be unlocked and people's health journey can be taken to the next level.
Len Arcuri [00:11:38]:
Right? Yeah. No, and I think to touch on the low hanging fruit even briefly, right. It basically comes down to don't eat poison and eat more of the foods that are natural, organic, whether it's fruits, vegetables, proteins, naturally sourced, clean.
Dr. Will Cole [00:11:59]:
Eat as close to the earth as you can. Right. But still live in modernity. But I would call what I call, let me say it this way, what I call the core four and if I could do core four plus one, these are the four food ingredients or additives that are most likely to disrupt the gut brain axis. For people that don't know the gut and brain are formed from the same fetal tissue, they're inextricably linked for the rest of our life. So it's an important part of our immune system, our brain health, et cetera. So gluten containing grains. So in the autism world, like being GF and DF SF is pretty.
Dr. Will Cole [00:12:41]:
No, you know, people know about it but you know, some people know about it and, but like you said, it's so too overwhelming and they don't want to go there or they think I've tried it for a few days and it didn't get any better. Look what has taken like it's not going to always be, it's never going to be done, undone or improved and optimized within a few days. So I think people give up too soon sometimes because it's difficult, it's new and humans aren't always good at doing difficult and new things. So I think that just to encourage people that yeah, it's talked a lot about in the community for a reason and it's not cut and dried. I'm not making blanket statements. There's some people that it's not that big of a needle mover certainly, but we should at least talk about at least it being a piece of the puzzle for many people. So gluten Is the grain protein in wheat, rye, barley, spelt, there are better for you versions of all the things I'm going to say, but going to like an ancient grain or sourdough bread which ferments some of those gluten and lectins, it makes it more digestible, less irritating to the gut brain axis. Obviously gluten free grains would be part of that too.
Dr. Will Cole [00:13:51]:
But again, you can have gluten free foods that don't love you back. Gluten free junk food. Just because it's gluten free doesn't make it healthy. So you don't want to swap, you know, gluten for just gluten free junk food. But looking at the impact that gluten, because we've hybridized it, we've sprayed it with herbicides and pesticides. So it's a lot of what I'm saying here has to do around the research of what researchers call an ancestral mismatch or a epigenetic genetic mismatch that our majority of our genes haven't changed in 10,000 plus years, but yet our world has changed very dramatically in a very finite period of time. When you're putting that in context with the totality of human history, just a few generations of people are eating foods that humans never ate before. And so it's this chasm between our DNA and our microbiome.
Dr. Will Cole [00:14:39]:
All the trillions of bacteria in our gut which we coexisted with symbiotically, they're living in a brave new world. And it's triggering things that have always been there for 10,000 years, but are being triggered like never before because of this genetic epigenetic mismatch. So gluten is a good example of that because there are better few versions of it. And then the conversation goes like, well, is it gluten or is it what we've done to wheat and barley and smell? And I think it's probably a both. And it's over consuming food and it's what we've done to it, it's historically good for, you know, storing. During times of famine, humans would have consumed grains during times of scarcity. Now we're feasting on a famine food year round. And on top of that, we've hybridized it and sprayed it with things.
Dr. Will Cole [00:15:24]:
So looking at better for you versions or avoiding entirely for gluten number two would be industrial seed oils, things like canola oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil. This is a little bit more controversial, but you know, I, I've seen dramatic improvements when people limit the these oils or avoid it entirely. And there's more studies coming out looking at the sort of Omegas 3, 6 and 9 ratio and improving a lot of different inflammatory problems. These are all polyunsaturated fatty acids, so there's nothing wrong with them. Inherently the modern western diet is just over consuming something out of order. It's not what humans are used to consuming. So these oils are in lots of packaged processed foods. So that's lumped in together with sort of the ultra processed food conversation.
Dr. Will Cole [00:16:06]:
Industrial seed oil is a part of that problem, in my opinion. And then third would be conventional dairy. There are certainly better versions of dairy, grass fed A two, raw dairy, fermented dairies like yogurts and kefirs and cheeses. But for the sake of simplicity, you know, is it what we've done to it? It's probably a bit of how we're raising the cow, the cross breeding of cow, what we're feeding the cow, how we're, you know, all of that processing and then on top of that we homogenize and pasteurize our milk, which it's a remnant of what it once was. You know, a lot of the nutrient density benefits these beneficial compounds within raw dairy, specifically raw A2 culture dairy. Most people are consuming dairy, that's beta A1 casein. And that's a completely different thing than beta A2 casein which humans would have consumed for a long period of time. So again, we mess things up.
Dr. Will Cole [00:16:59]:
Humans mess things up when they pretend to be God and we pay the price for it. And the fourth thing I would say would be added sugar, which most people know that. But even the nicer sounding euphemisms for sugar, like anything with the suffix O. Educate yourself on the labels. Looking at things like agave nectar. Agave nectar sounds natural, right? It's like it looks like somebody just squeezed a piece of agave into your little treat. But the reality is it's highly processed, it's higher in fructose, and you don't have it in its whole food form with fiber and all the beneficial minerals and vitamins that are going to help to balance out and be metabolized completely differently. So these are some of the things that people can look at.
Dr. Will Cole [00:17:42]:
And if you haven't looked at these things and made better for you swaps or avoided them, I would start there. It starts with food and then from there. Food isn't everything for everybody. But we have to deal with some other things in functional medicine, like environmental toxins, biotoxins, like bacteria, viruses, and mold, unhealthy guts, chronic stress, unresolved trauma. There's a lot of other things that, yes, food influences, but it's so much more than food. But I would say it starts with food.
Len Arcuri [00:18:12]:
Right, yeah. All those other things you mentioned, we've done many episodes going deep on all those concepts, which are all important. But again, food is always a phenomenal first place to go from wherever you are and to make changes in a positive direction. And you're right, all those offenders that you mentioned in and of themselves individually aren't necessarily bad. It's just. Just that perhaps we're eating them in excess, perhaps we're doing something to them that's changing them from their natural form. So, yeah, to get food. Right.
Len Arcuri [00:18:43]:
Whatever that means for a family, they can definitely start there with some of those offenders that you mentioned. But otherwise, I think when it comes to what specifically might be helpful for that parent. Right. Who wants to be able to keep themselves healthy in order for their own benefit, as well as for them to be able to be a great parent for their child. But whether it's for the parent, for themselves or for their child, a lot of it does come down to what uniquely is happening with that individual. And that's where I know for parents and patients that you've had, everything that functional medicine is all about is looking at that specific person. So the road usually involves some form of lab testing to indicate what's happening in the body. And particularly from a nutrition standpoint, what building blocks, essential building blocks might not be there, that with the right diet changes or the right supplements, a lot can be done to help an individual thrive.
Dr. Will Cole [00:19:39]:
Yeah, certainly.
Len Arcuri [00:19:41]:
Yep. So in terms of what you're doing now with patients, and I know you've had a number of ways that you've been serving people for a number of years. For a parent who's already kind of made some diet changes wants to go to that next step, what kind of guidance would you give? I know just from your books, you know, people see keto carrying and people hear about how a ketogenic diet can be really powerful, you know, for an individual, for a child. But then, as you know, there's an infinite number of autism diets that are out there that make things really confusing. So if a parent does the basics and they start playing better defense, feeding less toxic food, feeding more nourishing food, you know, what, what kind of high level advice would you give for a parent in terms of if you start with the diet, what, what's, what's next in the Sequencing.
Dr. Will Cole [00:20:31]:
Yeah, I would really say if you start with diet, maybe improved, but you're not where you want to be. And this applies to the parent and the kid because we know the research, I mean, around autoimmunity, I mean there's a very high correlation, I would say, to moms with some sort of autoimmunity and children on the spectrum. So oftentimes it is, they're very much intimately connected. And you know, sometimes it's a timing thing where they want to deal with the kid first and that's okay. But we as parents, we can only give what we have too, right? So we have to do the best we can with the resources we have, what's within our, you know, capacity. I'm not saying people have to be perfect, but it's like that cliche of putting on the oxygen mask on the plane yourself before you save someone else. And I know that's easier said than done. So I'd say that with all of respect and parents are doing the best they can, but I would maybe encourage people to give themselves permission to love themselves back because we as parents put ourselves in the back burner sometimes and we especially do it when we have higher needs kids.
Dr. Will Cole [00:21:41]:
So I would say labs for the family really, I would say looking at inflammation markers, looking at gut health, looking at metabolic health, looking at hormonal health for moms, specifically looking at environmental toxins. So I really think that labs and we do everything we can to make functional medicine accessible and affordable for people all around. So most of our patients are just everyday normal middle class Americans people. But I really think it's illuminating because they a know they're not shooting in the dark. They know, hey, no, this is my issue or this is my kid's issue. And we can compare and contrast that and tailor protocols based on the individual. So I think if someone started to clean up their diet but. But aren't where they want to be, which is most of our patients.
Dr. Will Cole [00:22:23]:
Most of our patients are very well read. They know more than most people do about health. They're better off than they would be if they weren't doing these things. But they aren't where they want to be. So I think that that's a definitely a major step is diagnostics and then we can compare and contrast it over time and make sure we're addressing everything appropriately. But that's what I would say. First and foremost, labs to get a baseline is very helpful.
Len Arcuri [00:22:47]:
Great. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I think with a lot of families who are Listening. They're probably pretty deep down this road, so this is all pretty very familiar for them. But for a parent who is just starting out, sometimes parents are really daunted in terms of making those changes, as I mentioned. So if they do start and to do the things that you mentioned at the outset and clean up the diet, you touched on it. But the key is to do that day after day for a period of time, to even give the opportunity to start seeing some benefits, which may take a while.
Dr. Will Cole [00:23:20]:
Oh, yeah, but.
Len Arcuri [00:23:21]:
But the idea of eating clean, let's say, for five days a week now, on weekends, having whatever you want, that tends to be pretty much another waste of time.
Dr. Will Cole [00:23:29]:
Yeah, well, yeah, the 80, 20 rule that comes from the sort of the diet culture. Right. This isn't diet. This is. We can call it diet, we can use that word, but it's a therapeutic tool. And, you know, if your body has a wiggle room for you to see improvements, doing 80, 20 or 5, whatever, then more power to you. But I would say people that are on the autoimmune inflammation spectrum normally don't have that wiggle room at this point in their health journey. So the analogy that's typically used in that scenario being like, okay, let's just pick on gluten for a second.
Dr. Will Cole [00:23:58]:
And let me be clear, it's not just about gluten. It's way more multifaceted than that for most people. But if you're saying someone, yeah, we're mostly gluten free as a family, that's like saying you're mostly pregnant. It's not going to gut it to your immune system, because your immune system, first of all, there's delayed inflammatory responses. B, it could take antibodies for certain people without immunity, months to lower antibodies, which are flags for destruction. So two days. Two days having gluten, whatever it is, or let's just say monthly, you're doing it. If it takes months for antibodies to come down and it could be gluten, it could be dairy, it could be something else.
Dr. Will Cole [00:24:34]:
I'm not saying it's gluten, but it's some sort of food sensitivity. If you have inflammatory response against a certain food, you cannot be just flirting with it. When you have autoimmunity, you have to be all or nothing, which sounds extreme, but it's just the way that it is. And anybody telling you differently is just trying to placate or doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to these sort of complex issues. Yes. With dieting and losing weight and sort of the vapid American reasons of why people change their foods, then the 8020 rule has its place, right? Because you're limiting the bad things that don't love you back. But when you're talking about rehabilitating an immune system is like a proverbial cast. And you can't.
Dr. Will Cole [00:25:18]:
Like, it'd be like me breaking my wrist, God forbid, but I break my arm and I take the cast off two days a week and do go do yard work. It's going to re injure it and slow it down and constantly irritate the system. You have to put on a proverbial cast on for months for some people, even longer than that to start seeing the mending and the resilience and improvement of function over time. So this is just, I'm saying this born out of years of clinical experience, that there's people that are telling you anything else don't see people don't see patients for a living.
Len Arcuri [00:25:51]:
No, that's wonderful. I really appreciate the cast analogy. I think really hammers it home very, very nicely. And I think that's a great example of why having some labs to show you what's happening. Because otherwise to commit to going whatever, making some diet change and really committing and doing it perpetually, not just, you know, casually, you know, in the absence of data, it's hard for some parents, people to get to that place. So that's why lab testing, while if you do an incredible amount can be super expensive, you don't have to do every test out there. You could just do some targeted labs to indicate what's happening. And then again with that precision, that may be all you need as evidence to say, okay, this is the change I'm making, not just for a couple of days, but I understand why.
Len Arcuri [00:26:44]:
I understand how it's going to help. And that's where labs can be really, really helpful from that standpoint.
Dr. Will Cole [00:26:48]:
Yeah, and I think you touched on a good point. I think sometimes, yes, labs are helpful in directing specific protocols and we us customizing aspects and seeing, seeing the number improve. But almost equally, in many cases, not all cases, but for many people, almost equally, the service and benefit of labs is to be an educational tool for compliance for a patient. So it's like, it's not like this guy or this doctor, whatever, telling them to do something. They'll own it a lot more for themselves when they see it's not just sort of this whatever abstract concept that this guy's telling me to do. It's actually, I see the numbers, the Numbers aren't lying and I can see the improvements and it's sort of gamifying if you will, the improvement of their health, which that's not the purpose for everybody. But I definitely think it's an aha moment for some people, for them to own it a bit on a deeper level.
Len Arcuri [00:27:48]:
Yep, agreed. And again, it's just with awareness and knowledge you can't unknow what you might know, what you might discover. So that's where getting better at informed sounds cliche, but it really is key for a parent, again for you to be the best parent you can be and especially for your child. It used to be there were very little options or very little, you were given little sense of hope of what you might be able to do. For a child with autism, now it's almost the opposite, where there's tremendous roads, you know, number of roads you can go down. So it's that precision on knowing really what's happening with your child and then working with somebody like yourself or a functional medicine doctor to be able to have a guide to who can help you see the alternatives, the paths that you can go down. And a lot of times it comes down to basics like diet changes, which are incredibly inconvenient, but no less powerful if you're implementing them consistently.
Dr. Will Cole [00:28:43]:
Yeah, without a doubt. And anything can happen. I mean stress, I think even as a care someone that is a caretaker, whether that is a parent or someone's, you know, a child, an ailing parent, you have to really be the best optimized version of yourself. And it's so easy for people to let their health kind of go by the wayside. I've seen sort of an uptick over the past couple years in specific type of autoimmunity. It's another neurological autoimmune issue called pots. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And POTS can be triggered by any, I mean can triggered by stress, it could be triggered by mold, it could be triggered by other things just like any other inflammatory problem, some sort of environmental lifestyle stressor.
Dr. Will Cole [00:29:31]:
But Covid specifically triggered POTS in many people. So a lot of these people that have not recovered from COVID and I don't know why I'm saying this, but more than anything I'm seeing a lot of parents that have kids on the spectrum, but they're having this sort of long standing brain fog, fatigue, food sensitivities, migraines, these sort of histamine intolerance symptoms because we know there's a genetic component to these issues. Like a third of that puzzle is the methylation detox HLA gene variants, but the two thirds is epigenetically. So it's, we have to, I think a lot of people gaslight themselves, right. And they think that it's not that bad or they'll compare that to them, compare themselves to someone sicker. But you know, your body don't let someone gaslight you and don't you gaslight yourself. And there's answers to these questions.
Len Arcuri [00:30:23]:
No doubt, no doubt. And I think that's sage advice as we're thinking about parents specifically. And I wish I could talk to you for hours because there's so many topics that you just touched on which are so important. But going back to your current book and this term, shameflammation, which I think is hard to say, but it's also just very, very, very relevant. And I think a lot of parents who are doing everything they can to manage a challenging situation for their child, for themselves, but the term shame, guilt, these are real heavy emotions that not for every parent but for many come up. And so especially as a parent thinking about themselves for their own health in terms of their emotion and feeling those strong emotions, not that it's bad to feel any emotion, but if you're sitting in shame or guilt and that for too long, as you mentioned at the outset, that's going to impact your physical health. So can you talk a little bit about that term shameflammation, what it means to you and particularly for the parents who are listening, what guidance you would give them that I know is in your book, but I would love for you to give a few takeaways on that concept.
Dr. Will Cole [00:31:37]:
Yeah, it's hard to say is because I made it up. It's a completely made up word. But it's, it is like a lot of my job is teaching and educating people and I one of our top patient bases are teachers. It's funny, teachers, school nurses, entrepreneurs, engineers are top patient base. And I find they all have a common love of spreadsheets. Google Microsoft spreadsheets and Microsoft sheets that. But it's to get to the root cause and see that data improve on labs. But education and words and how you get a point across is a large part of my job.
Dr. Will Cole [00:32:16]:
So shameflammation is just my made up word on how things like shame and things that cause shame influences our biochemistry. So it's how shame impacts inflammation, hence shameflammation. So chronic stress impacts shame. Right. If someone's snapping at their loved ones, they're irritable they're overwhelmed, they're burnt out, they're not sleeping well, they're stress eating. There's a lot of, like, I just feel icky and I'm not showing up as the best version of myself. There's a lot of shame and a lot of dysregulated immune system and nervous system responses. That's shameflammation.
Dr. Will Cole [00:32:52]:
Then of course, there's shame with unresolved trauma, past trauma. We have every telehealth patient fill out what's called an ACE score or ACE questionnaire. Adverse childhood experiences or events. It's looking at really heavy, complex things like physical abuse, growing up, sexual abuse growing up, neglect, growing up, substance abuse, growing up. The higher your ACE score, the more likely you're to have autoimmune issues, metabolic problems, hormone mental health issues later on in life. So that's the feeling side of gut feelings. So we have to have that both and that bidirectional conversation or an approach to dealing, whether it be an autoimmune problem, metabolic problem. So it's, yeah, it's a, it's a significant part, but it's, as I said earlier, it's a lot more insidious, it's a lot more nebulous because you can't just say, well, don't have that stress anymore or don't have that trauma anymore.
Dr. Will Cole [00:33:47]:
You can say that with food. You can say it. They may not follow your advice, but you can do it. You cannot just say that about stress and trauma. It doesn't work like that. So you have to metabolize stored trauma in the body. You have to modulate the nervous system and unpack and metabolize that out of the body and, and build something called vagal tone. It's the largest cranial nerve in the body.
Dr. Will Cole [00:34:09]:
It's weak in a lot of people. They're parasympathetic that resting, digesting, whether it's kids on the spectrum or it's their parents on the autoimmune inflammation spectrum, there's poor vagal tone is implicated in the vast majority of these cases. Well, things like stress and trauma are a piece of why that's like that. And their nervous system is dysregulated. Their sympathetic is overactive. The parasympathetic. Parasympathetic is underactive. So some of the prescriptions that we give to telehealth patients that our practices used to be consistent, but things like breath work, meditation, grounding practices are some.
Dr. Will Cole [00:34:45]:
And then even more advanced therapies like EMDR, DNRs these are things that I'm not yet to do all of that stuff. But I typically tell telehealth patients, pick something active and something passive. Let's start there. And an active could be breathwork practice, a somatic practice. Right. And something passive. There's a lot of great biohacking devices like the Apollo Neuro Sensate that are great supportive tools. They don't replace, in my opinion, things like breath work and meditation, but they're a great passive tool.
Dr. Will Cole [00:35:19]:
So it's not just another thing to add to your list, it's something that's supporting vagal tone even when you're not thinking about it. So yeah, those are some things that are out of the gate. People can start to deal with that sort of feelings, mental, emotional, spiritual facets of their physical health.
Len Arcuri [00:35:34]:
Fantastic. Yeah. The Apollo Neuro doctor Dave Rabin's going to be out in a couple weeks and we'll talk about that device. And I appreciate the more full definition of shameflammation. And I know at the biohacking conference you were talking about in terms of how you might tame shameflammation, how you reduce it, that it comes down to metaphysical meals. Can you expand a little bit on that?
Dr. Will Cole [00:35:59]:
Yeah, yeah. So another made up word, but.
Len Arcuri [00:36:03]:
But I like it, thanks.
Dr. Will Cole [00:36:06]:
But it's just how. It's not just about what we're feeding our head, our body with breakfast, lunch and dinner, but what are we feeding our head and our heart? So these metaphysical meals, like things that are influencing your biochemistry, like food is information for your biochemistry, but our thoughts and emotions are information for your biochemistry too. So it could be healthy boundaries with social media and technology. Right. And not constantly scrolling FOMO inducing content. I talk in the book about Jomo, like finding the joy of missing out, like really cultivating stillness, healthy boundaries with yourself, healthy boundaries with technology, healthy boundaries with food. Talk about these sort of the ancient Danish practice of hygge and like coziness and stillness and reading, you know, curling up under a cozy blanket, reading a book, lighting a candle, sitting by the fire. It's getting off of technology.
Dr. Will Cole [00:36:59]:
It's bringing stillness and healthy margins into your life. And. Or it could be like breath, work and meditation that I mentioned, like really a practice that is influencing your biochemistry, but showing up like you would with breakfast, lunch and dinner. You're showing up to that metaphysical meal every day for that mealtime, that proverbial mealtime, because you have to be consistent with it. Because the people that have dysregulated nervous systems, they aren't none of us are good at that. We have to be. That's why they call it a practice. And someone that says meditation's not for me or breath work isn't for me, they're typically the people that need to do it the most because they're so dysregulated and so unpresent and uncomfortable with it.
Dr. Will Cole [00:37:44]:
Because in part of that poor vagal tone, that dysregulated nervous system, it's going to be uncomfortable. That's why you need to do it. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't. Of course, start off low and slow, lean into it, check in with your body. I'm not saying be aggressive and push a square peg through a round hole, but you have to start small, but be consistent with the small steps and lean into it and progress from there. So, yeah, those metaphysical meals are really important and they're toning. That would be like me if I said, well, meditation's not for me and I just gave up after two times or a week, whatever. That would be like me going to the gym, I've never worked out before.
Dr. Will Cole [00:38:24]:
Show up to the gym and say, well, it's not for me. I'm sore, I'm not. It's new. I'm not natural at it. I'm insecure about it. Like anything else, we have to, we're a physio, but to our modern American mind, we don't realize what we're doing on a physical level. We think, well, the meditation. The people may be holding on to the sort of stigma of meditation and breath work and these sort of mindfulness practices as something other than physical and like a woo woo abstract practice where they don't see like the tangible benefits.
Dr. Will Cole [00:38:56]:
But physiologically you're actually strengthening your vagus nerve. You actually are toning a weak nerve. So it's. You actually are toning. You are strengthening something. It is exercise, but it's not something where you have to like, you know, for it's not external, it's internal. You're not seeing it per se, but you're going to notice it when you start to create that regulation in your body. So, yeah, that's what metaphysical meals are.
Len Arcuri [00:39:23]:
All right, great. Well, I appreciate that. And you know, for parents who are listening, I know all those things you talked about in terms of the self care and, you know, kind of just stillness. I know there's lots of parents who are listening saying, I don't have time for any of this nonsense, you know, which is why it comes down to one Being open. And two, just literally, even if it's five minutes a day. I couldn't meditate at all for years, but then finally developed a practice, you know, going five minutes a day and then increasing it. And it's with all the things that you mentioned, which gives parents lots of options. Just choose one, right, and just commit to doing a little bit each day.
Len Arcuri [00:39:58]:
That's what you're talking about. Go low and slow. But the cumulative benefits of doing that for yourself will be tremendous. And it's the same thing for changes you're making for your child. It's the cumulative day to day making better choices. That cumulative effect is the key.
Dr. Will Cole [00:40:14]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Len Arcuri [00:40:15]:
All right, well, hey, we covered some great ground. I really appreciate you offering your perspective, trusting your gut feelings. The title of this episode, I mean, that's so applicable for a parent in terms of their own intuition to trust themselves, to make great decisions for themselves and their child. And I know a lot of parents don't, you know, really, it's somewhat uncomfortable stepping into really trusting yourself because we've been all so conditioned to trust the experts, the MDs or the influencers. And I know so much of what you're about is to help parents be that parent they can be and to take care of themselves, to be that caregiver they're wanting to give. And that's what this podcast is all about either. So I think it's a really important topic that we focused on. I know people can go to drwillcole.com to find out more about you.
Len Arcuri [00:41:04]:
Anything else that you'd like to share about what you're doing these days?
Dr. Will Cole [00:41:06]:
No, no, I appreciate the opportunity.
Len Arcuri [00:41:08]:
Yeah.
Dr. Will Cole [00:41:09]:
DrWilCole.com, my podcast is called the Art of Being. Well, there's an episode or two every week and yeah, tons of free [email protected] Fantastic.
Len Arcuri [00:41:18]:
Well, again, your publications, your books have been game changing for me and really appreciate everything you're doing and for taking the time today to speak to our audience. Thanks so much.
Dr. Will Cole [00:41:27]:
Thanks, Lynn.
Len Arcuri [00:41:29]:
Your child wants you to transform form now. And the fastest way to do that is with personalized support. To learn more, go to allinparentcoaching.com intensive.
