Gut Health Secrets for a Stronger Immune System
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Kara Wada, MD: Welcome everyone to this episode of the Becoming Immune Confident podcast. This is Dr. Kara Wada, board-certified in allergy, immunology, lifestyle medicine, and I am just thrilled to welcome today a colleague that I have been following for quite some time, been quite a fangirl, and I am so excited to introduce you to Dr. Vivian Asamoah. She is a board-certified gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition physician. She completed her fellowships at John Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. And post fellowship, she earned certification in functional medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. She is CEO of Houston Gastro Institute, a private practice serving the West Houston community in Houston, Texas for over a decade.
She's an international speaker, educator, and patient advocate. She has run continuing medical education for healthcare professionals in conventional gastroenterology as well as the non allopathic fields of naturopathic medicine, chiropractic care, and dietetics.
Dr. V, as she's affectionately called by her patients, is well known for her private Facebook community. I'm a member and YouTube channel, Natural Gut Relief, where she shares educational information on the impact of diet and lifestyle on the gut. She hosts live weekly show called Back to the Basics on Facebook with prominent guest interviews. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. V.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Thank you so much for having me on today, Dr. Wada. It's such an honor to be on your show.
Dr. Asamoah's Journey from Conventional Medicine to Functional Medicine
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Kara Wada, MD: I would love to hear, and I know we talked a little bit behind the scenes, but, take us on kind of the short story. How did you end up in this really cool, rapidly evolving area of medicine?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: It's been an amazing journey and I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster ride just meeting some amazing people along the journey and discovering so much about medicine. I feel like I'm learning medicine all over again. I shared with you earlier, Dr. Wada, I went to med school in Geneva and in Europe, they're kind of really, you know, kind of like holistic, um, happy loving, you know, gut love, you know, earthy loving people.
And so we actually, you know, in med school, we were taught about homeopathic medicine. That was actually a little part of our Pharmacotherapy lectures. And so very, very openly introduced to using homeopathy in our patients. I'm originally from Ghana. So herbal medicine is very sort of like basic and traditional to us.
I went to Hopkins, which is really sort of like very scientific evidence based everything research. But when I started practicing, I realized that my traditional standard of care methods were not working in the real world. And being a gut doctor, I really, you know, I quickly realized that I was missing a huge component of what triggers patients and that was diet and lifestyle.
And I was going to have to dive a little bit deeper into that component and get to the root cause of why my patient was constantly bloated or had a lot of gut discomfort when all my testing, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and CT scan was negative. And that's what took me into that integrative functional medicine world. I was searching for answers for my patients.
Kara Wada, MD: I hear that and that story resonates because in similar ways, you know, and talking beforehand and as you know, the folks who have listened before, you know, it was kind of out of my personal experiences with the immune system going and misbehaving that kind of, you know, brought me back to, okay, what could have gone wrong and how can I better help my patients because in particular with Sjogren's, there aren't great treatments. There's some in trial, but there aren't great treatments. And so, what could I do rather than just kind of waiting around for my immune system to continue to misbehave?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Right.
The Gut-Immune System Connection Explained
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Kara Wada, MD: Let's dive in a little bit to kind of the science and could you briefly kind of explain what is that connection between the gut and the immune system for those that are maybe new to listening or,
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: I love to go back to basics, really, when we talk about, I know we're two doctors talking, but anyone could be listening to this. So I'm going to almost explain it like how I would explain it to my fifth graders class if I was invited, right? And I would say the immune system is our host defense.
It's how we protect ourself against the outside environment, right? And so we identify something as foreign, and then our body is, you know, has a whole bunch of different types of soldiers, like T cells, T soldiers, natural killer soldiers, B soldiers, these are all different types of cells who have their own role in terms of immune response, right?
Adaptative response, humor response, all of those things, and how they're going to fight back, right? And so it's really important that those soldiers that exist everywhere in our body have everything they need, you know, all the armamentarium to be ready to fight. And we know that these soldiers need helpers.
And we know that these helpers actually come from one major area of our body, which is the gut. 70% of our immune system resides in the gut, right? So all of these cells are there, these very important cells are there. And remember, these cells are exposed to everything every day. And think about what they're exposed to. What is your gut exposed to is exposed to everything you eat, right? But this immune system of all these soldiers and what you drink, yes. And the immune system is really kind of works in harmony with what we call the microbiome. I really feel like the microbiome is like our second self.
Like we have like our own human, but then we have a bunch of cells that come from bacteria like bacteria, virus, fungi, archaea, these different organisms that reside within us, but they actually help us. They help us digest our food, they help us extract nutrients, they help us make protein like amino acids that are really important in building blocks.
And really important in helping strengthen that immune system, right? So it's this interplay between this microbiome and the true soldiers, those T, B natural killer cells that we have in our body that actually build and help really protect that immune system, develop that immune system. So we imagine that your immune system could be off if your gut is not working well. If that microbiota, that harmony of all those organism we talked about is off, right?
So that they're not going to be able to do their job to help support and boost your immune system. So I hope that was a good example. So our body's immune system doesn't rely on our brain or, you know. It really relies on our gut. And so taking care of your gut leads to a healthy immune system.
Common Signs of an Unhealthy Gut
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Kara Wada, MD: And when we have an unhealthy gut, what are the most common ways that that then shows up when you see patients in the clinic?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Yeah. It's like, how do you know if you have an unhealthy gut? I'll tell you this guys, you won't know on a colonoscopy. Okay? You won't know on an endoscopy necessarily. You won't know on blood tests until things are really bad. But you're going to have to just be able to listen to your body and understand how your body's reacting to what you're eating.
Or it's just how it's even responding to daily habits. So for example, daily habits of elimination of the body. We should be pooping once or twice a day. We should be pooping like babies are pooping. They poop like they eat, they poop. They eat, they poop. Right? That would be great. I wish I could have that, right?
But we should be pooping at least once a day. So, that's a way of eliminating toxins from your system, like all the bad stuff you're putting in and, you know. So if you're not pooping on a regular basis, like once a day or easily pooping once every other day, or you're like straining to poop and you're just getting these little, somethings off. Your gut is off because that really depends on your microbiome and how things are moving. We call that motility, right? So one, just your regularity. That's important.
Number two, how you feel after you eat. After eating, you should feel good. You know, I ate, I got energy. You know, that food is going to go into your small intestine and bacteria is going to digest it. And you're going to feel energetic. Your liver is going to work well. But if after you eat, you have tummy pain, you feel excessively bloated, you're immediately running to the bathroom. Something is off, right? So it either could be the food that you're eating, or you've got some we'll call unhealthy bacteria, I never like calling anything bad. But unhealthy bacteria that's not digesting and helping you absorb this right, right?
Sometimes you may even notice that after a meal you just feel so tired, right? Your brain is foggy. You've got brain fog. Or your mood may be impaired. And that's typically happening after meals. Definitely something could be off. So symptoms that we often think about like bloating, excessive belching, tummy cramping, immediate diarrhea.
But also this could extend to beyond just the gut, right? You're actually starting to notice, wow, I'm feeling brain fog. You know what? In some cases with autoimmune disease, like, as you mentioned, Dr. Wada, you may notice my joints hurt every time I eat this particular food. Why is that the case? Oh, I break out in a rash. I got little hives here. You know, hours or days, every time I eat this food. Listen to your body because your body's telling you something is off and it may be related to what you're ingesting, what you're putting in your body, right? I think that's what I tell my patients.
Navigating Food Sensitivities and Restrictive Diets
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Kara Wada, MD: So one of the challenges that I am still struggling kind of with the right way to handle and the best, you know, the best loving way to handle is a lot of times will have some folks who, it's almost every time they eat something, they're feeling pretty terrible. And so then they start chipping away to the point where they only have a, you know, a handful of safe foods. And even those safe foods are maybe sus fat.
I'm curious how you handle that because that's an area that I'm like, you know, we're eating kind of has become this, you know, intense stressor for folks.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: That's a huge stressor when you're stuck with just like, I can only have 10 things and that's it. And it has to be right. And so, sometimes I think you're right. It's sometimes the fear of, "I don't even want to try this because I'm worried about what it's going to do to me." So that's the fear. Like, nothing may happen, but they're just scared. The second thing is "I tried this one time before and this happened," so then we don't know whether it's a, is it that food or is it a quantity issue? Like, because you had too much of it, so there's some of that. And then sometimes it really is about, "Hey, every time I consistently eat this, I feel bad, so I'm not going to eat it."
And then builds into, but I think, you know, the issue is people don't know what to do. Just like us as physicians, like, well, how do we help this person? There are a couple of different options, but I always love to go back to basics. Start simple. I like people to start by writing a food diary.
Kara Wada, MD: High five. Me too.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: It sheds so much light. First thing it lets them know, like it helps them now actually see what they're consuming. So they can see if they're under eating, not eating a lot, or if they're eating some things that are off and they're consistent culprits. But in addition to the food, I love for them to add a symptom diary, like what happened today.
And then I like to add an emotional component. Like, so I say, give me a smiley face, give me a sad face, or give me just a blank, like a straight face, right? So how you felt that day and I can connect mind body and really see if there was a connection there with what you were eating. So that's a really good place to start.
And then, you know, I'm always, always, my goal is always to get people to have a healthy relationship with food again. Food is wonderful. Food is yummy. It's such a way, a beautiful way of connecting with your community, connecting with your family, sitting together to eat, going out with a girlfriend, let's go eat.
And so when you can't eat and you can't just go out for a meal or you can't sit with your family and you have to have a very different meal, there's this social disconnection that brings a lot of loneliness in people's lives. So my goal is always like, you know, I'm going to hold your hand and we're going to go through some challenges and let's see what we can do.
So once I get that food diary, I then make a little assessment and I try and go with the simple things first. Is it a maldigestion? Is it like a food intolerance issue.
Understanding Food Intolerances and Elimination Diets
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Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Like, is there a lactose intolerance? Is it dairy? Right? Have we looked at artificial sweeteners, right? Is that an issue? Those are easy peasy, right? Have we looked at gluten? Have we tested this patient Celiac? Have we looked at gluten? So I kind of look at those easy peasy things and I'm like, okay, are they eating a lot of processed foods or not? How often are you going to Whataburger? How often are you going to? So we kind of look at that and we try and clean things up.
Kara Wada, MD: Here in Columbus, but yes.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Wendy's if you're at Columbus. So, so we look at just some easy cleanup. And then after that, I was still kind of like, Hey, you know, this worked, this didn't work. I usually like to put patients on an elimination diet, right? So for me, as a GI doc, I want to make sure in my history that I'm not dealing with an allergy, which is an immediate IgE mediated.
So they're not telling me like, "Oh, right after I eat eggs, I throw up or I break out." So once I know that it's not an allergy and we're looking more at maybe a sensitivity or intolerance, then I go into the food elimination. So I usually recommend a 12 food elimination diet. So there's a simple elimination protocol where they're eliminating most of these top allergens, right?
So that can result in delayed sensitivity. This is mediated by IgG and we may see reactions three days later up to even two weeks later, right? And so I have them eliminate that, not just for a week, because most people are like, "Yeah, I gave up dairy for a week. Nothing happened." No, the casein protein can linger. And so I usually say a minimum of 21 days. And if we can do four weeks, that's great. And so we do that and it's a great way to clean out the system because in that protocol, there's no coffee, there's no alcohol, there's no gluten, there's no dairy. So you're already getting rid of a lot of foods that we call pro-inflammatory, and it's a great way to clean out the system.
So that's where I usually start, right? And that usually helps. I will say maybe by the time we get to elimination diet and patients have finished their four week, and now we put them up on a protocol of reintroduction, it's at least a good 75% patients are like, I'm feeling better. I'm actually feeling better.
And maybe it could just be some of those culprit foods because sugar is also out in that protocol, right? So it's like, how much of these things are, yeah. So I usually start there and 75% of the time our patients are better. And then, you know, the 25%, then we have, for those patients, we really have to dig into root cause and see what else is going on.
Exploring Additional Gut Health Challenges like SIBO, LIBO, and Yeast Overgrowth
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Kara Wada, MD: And those other things that you're thinking about then are those things like SIBO or like, what are some of those other things that you're kind of thinking about?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Absolutely. You're spot on. I'm thinking, you know, is this a fungal overgrowth? Is this actually bacterial overgrowth, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which is SIBO or even large intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which is called LIBO or LIBO. I'm thinking, could this be a yeast infection?
Yeast infection is often underplayed in gastroenterology and, in I think in conventional medicine, but I follow the work of Dr. Satish Rao and he's a gastroenterologist who's done amazing work on the impact of enteric yeast infections, right? And how they can just chronically exist and lead to all sorts of imbalance in the microbiome. And so of course, you know, when patients take antibiotics right away, they're like, Oh, I got a yeast infection. So if you get a yeast infection in your vagina, why couldn't you get a yeast infection in your gut?
Kara Wada, MD: Yeah. I mean, I will say until recently, very recently, I was still kind of like, Oh, I don't know. But I have a few patients who, again, you know, I've been open minded and being a little more liberal in my prescribing of some antifungals because it really has been helpful for them over the years. Then, you know, reading, continuing to read and learn and learn about Dr. Rao's work. And I still have more to learn, you know, of course, but, before we hit record, what I think is so challenging is that as a group, as physicians, we tend to be lifelong learners and we do love learning. We go to our continuing education, you know, sessions and keep up with things. And yet, we also as a group tend to stay very ingrained in the things we learned in our training and I think have sometimes a hard time letting go when there are big shifts in our thought paradigm.
And you know, that's the part I get frustrated because for anyone who's not familiar with the story of Dr. Semmelweis, who I believe came from, was he practicing in Switzerland or Austria? One of the two. I can't recall.
So he is the doctor who discovered that the reason why women were dying in childbirth was because of bacteria that the doctors were, you know, transferring because they would go do autopsies in between births. The midwives weren't. And he said, hey, if you just wash your hands, I think will prevent a lot of people from dying. And he was so ridiculed that it was the end of his career. You know, there is this, they call it the Semmelweis effect. When folks are more forward thinking that sometimes they do run into these walls of resistance. Yeah.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Yeah, I think so. I think so. I agree with you 100%. I think we get stuck in the conventional way of learning and what we were taught, and I think it's also important to realize the impact of the pharmaceutical industry in our practice of medicine and everything is all about find the diagnosis, treat it with this drug, find the diagnosis, treat it with this drug, or proceed with surgery.
The Importance of Integrating Traditional Medicine into Modern Healthcare
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Dr. Vivian Asamoah: I feel like surgery is on a whole different level, though, because if you break something or something is that you want to get it out, you want to fix it.
But yeah, I think we have to keep an open mind. We also have to realize that the root of medicine is so ancestral that we can not only imagine it from the days of penicillin invention. It's so deep rooted, right? And truly the word medicine and how we heal is very, very ancestral and very spiritual as well. There's a component of that, that we've lost in what we've called that art of medicine, right?
That art of medicine is that healing components, all of that component. How do we analyze? How do we look? How do we personalize? How do we customize for this person? How do we customize for Susan and not just for the IBS patient, right? What is different? And that's a little, we've lost some of that because we're focused so much on how do I treat? How do I give the prescription so she gets better? And then she comes back. And so that's why I think that even our training has changed over the years. Pharmaceutical industry has really made a huge impact. Standard of care is just done, is put together by a bunch of doctors sitting in a room together who say, we believe this is standard of care, but is it always the right standard of care for the next person? We don't know. Right? And so I think as physicians, curious minds who always want to learn, we know that the biggest inventions, just like you're saying, the greatest innovation come from happenstance, a chance. Wow. I wasn't even expecting this to happen and look, it happened. And if we don't keep an open mind at learning about other cultures and respecting that ancestral nature of the art of medicine, we will not move forward. But I'm really excited about medicine today because I feel like we are moving there. We are going back to the very holistic, integrative way of treating. And I think, you know, as people have their own personal experiences and journeys, that's what opens that heart and opens that mindset to embracing, hey, maybe I can look at this differently and maybe I can provide a different kind of healing to my patient that's going to be long lasting and not only dependent on medication right?
Kara Wada, MD: It's so reminiscent. I had a conversation with Dr. Siri Chand Khalsa some months back and just discussing, you know, kind of this entity of colonialism that really finds its way into Western medicine. And, you know, yes, double blind, placebo controlled trials are considered the gold standard.
And yet, to just outright dismiss thousands of years of tradition is not the answer either. You know, like, you have to kind of hold those two things, right?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: You have to get a hold of those two things. I was reading, it was some old writings from a British colonialist. He was actually a physician and he had traveled to Uganda in the 1800s and actually witnessed a Caesarean birth in the forest, in the jungle. And he himself had never been part of a Caesarean birth before. Like he was looking at it with curious eyes, like, wow, they took this blade and that was heated.
He was there documenting, right? And this elder, this healer took this blade, this iron rod and was heating it and sliced the woman from the belly down and use these banana leaf almost like needles, you know, to open and then they poured this herbal concoction that sizzled on her belly. I think an antiseptic somehow, right? Some fermented alcohol antiseptic, got the baby out, right? This was in the 1800s in Africa. Then closed the wound with these little something from a tree, like from the leaf, this prickly thing, closed the wound through this, you know, sizzling antiseptic on again.
And the lady rested while her child was being cared for by another family member. The lady rested on banana leaves for three days and three nights. And he was, and I was like, hey, we're doing cesarean sections in Uganda in 1800s. And there was no colonial British doctor. They're doing this. This was the people and for the people before we even heard about that. So he took this and I found this in a museum and he was recounting this to his, the Royal Infirmary of London or whatever is talking about what he found. So yes, I can't forget, and you know, traditional. That's traditional healing medicine and what was done before our time. And I think we're kind of going back to some of that, but really, I think the integrative medicine is bridging the two, right?
Kara Wada, MD: Yeah. And using, you know, going back to the word and as opposed to or.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Yes.
Kara Wada, MD: I'd love to hear about a success story, you know, someone who maybe wasn't that 25% that made it through the protocol, still having trouble. I feel like a lot of the folks who tune in to listen, like they feel like they've done all the things. You know, what are some other things that you're finding success in, in your practice?
A Successful Case Study Involving a Patient with Severe Food Sensitivity and Candida Overgrowth
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Dr. Vivian Asamoah: I'd love to share a patient that came to us a very similar to, you know, the situations that maybe you encounter and you mentioned, Dr. Wada. So, she came to us and she had seen, you know, two to three other GIs. She had actually seen several functional medicine providers, like primary care doctors. And, she was only eating seven foods. And she had, unfortunately, even though eating seven foods, she had gained weight. She had not lost weight. She had gained weight because she was retaining a lot of water. She was just retaining. She looked puffy, right? Looked really puffy, only eating seven foods, really low energy. And she was just desperate for help. She tried every single diet. She was like, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's working. And so, you know, we started off with, I always have my conventional hat on. So I want to make sure that this person has been evaluated for something I could find really easily. And so I'm like, let me look at labs. Have you had a scope? 'Cause she had some abdominal pain. She was over 45. So I said, make sure you've had your screening. And then in her labs, I was looking at, are there nutrient deficiencies that will clue me in? Is there celiac disease? She had already been autoimmune workup. So she'd done all of that. And then, you know, she already came with her spreadsheet diary. Like it was just a whole spreadsheet like this the last 20 days, Dr. V, this is what I've been eating. Analyze that she wasn't eating much. I was really worried about poor diversity, which also leads to an unhealthy gut. Right?
And so we went on, she hadn't had a 3DCT. So I was like, let me get at least imaging 'cause I want to be sure. I'm going to just take a minute and just step out to say, because I did have a patient who had lots of diarrhea and was put on like elimination diet and this all sorts of supplements and no one had done a 3DCT. And when I did that patient's 3DCT, she had a two centimeter pancreatic mass that was pushing on her ducts and causing pancreatic insufficiency and causing the diarrhea issues. So I just like to have a comprehensive look and leave no stones unturned, right? And so we did her CT. It was great. It was fine. And then I started digging in deeper. So I did some functional medicine specialty testing. I went deeper into her micronutrient panels, right? I really wanted to see all her vitamins were looking like, right? I looked at her organic acids. What's happening there? Omega levels, you know. Omegas are, EPA and DHA extremely important for the gut lining as well as the brain. We'll look at that. I did a SIBO test on her to make sure she didn't have SIBO. She did have a very mild SIBO. In addition, I did check her blood work for Candida, right? And she had super high Candida levels. And I, you know, I was like, Oh, we didn't talk about that. And I had her, one of the standardized Candida questionnaires, just a clue in is, could this, the scores were really high. It's really hard to test for Candida. Like I wish we could easily find it, but it really requires us being able to go into the entire gut, which is mouth to anus and then getting juices and culturing. And that's almost impossible to do sterilely, you know? And so, she had some of her organic acids markers were positive for yeast and she ended up doing a comprehensive stool test and that also has to be evaluated with nuance, right? A lot of a comprehensive stool tests are not FDA approved. But over the years I've been one of the GIs who says I'm gonna look at what I think is reliable, that's going to help me, that makes sense for this patient and the rest of it, it's noise. I'm not going to focus too much on the individual strains, but I'm going to look at the picture. It gives us at least a bird's eye view, but exactly a bird's eye view of what's going on. And she had four plus yeast. And I said, okay. I don't have a great way to test for yeast, but she's got four plus in her stool. Her score is through the roof. She's got high serology markers of yeast. And I'm gonna go ahead and treat for yeast infection, which I think she'd been having for a while. So we put her on a yeast protocol. I'm very careful with the diet because she was already so deficient. So I didn't want her to go on that very strict anti yeast. I usually just keep sugar low, carbs to a minimum, lots of vegetables and the right low glycemic index fruits. And I had to prescribe prescription because I wasn't convinced verbals were going to work. And we had her on a phone call for a while. We repleted her nutrients.
And I will tell you, Dr. Wada, when she came to me, every time she walked into the room, like my, I was like, "Oh, she's going to stress me out. She's got so many problems." And she was really kind of mean. She was like, "Well, you got to fix me, Dr. V. And nobody's at this, that," and I was like, "Oh, so much pressure. What if I can't find." About three weeks into the treatment, I was like, she was like a different person. She was like a different person and I think that's really, this was about four or five years ago. That was the first time I would say my GI brain, conventional brain really said, this yeast thing is real. She was like a different person. She was nice. She was, she was like, "my gosh, I can sleep at night. Oh my goodness. I have energy. My gosh, Dr. V, I started losing weight." And we started a process of reintroducing foods and I still see her. I see her once a year because she's just doing great. We just check her micronutrients. And the last time Stacey came in, she says, "There are only five foods I don't eat anymore." She went from only eating seven foods to now, "I eat everything. It's just like five foods I don't eat." And I was like, "you don't eat them because they bother you?" And she was like, "yeah, I just don't like them." And I was like, "Wonderful." That, I think was a great success story. And. I learned a lot from her. I learned a lot from her because when we dug into the yeast, she started bringing data. I started sharing data. We started comparing our notes and we, we said, Well, let's put a protocol together that's gonna work for you. And she did great. And now she actually has a little protocol she does herself because, periodically, about once every six months, you'll do like a detox fast and really super clean. And she says, "I feel like that really helps me keep that microbiome in check," right? And it worked for her. Yeah. So that was a great success story. She did awesome.
Kara Wada, MD: I think that's going to be so helpful too for, I know of a couple of patients in my mind that I'm going to be sharing this episode with because, you know, I tell them like, keep the hope alive, we are going to figure out what's going on. We're going to get to the root of it and help you feel better.
And I think so many feel like they've been, they played the game of hot potato from specialist to specialist, trying to sort things through and they just get really frustrated and start to lose hope sometimes.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: It is. It is difficult. Yeah. And I think us being there just as a support to say, you know, I tell my patients sometimes I said, if I can't find it, I'm going to find someone smarter than me who's gonna figure it out. 'Cause sometimes, you know, you've never seen one, so you don't even know what to think of. I say, "I'm not going to give up. We're going to find someone smarter than me to help figure this out and we're just going to keep going." So I'm very open to referring my patients, you know, for a second opinion with rheumatology or something to say, Hey, is there more we can do? What are we missing here? And I think patients appreciate that. And even though they may not be getting better by leaps and bounds, they have faith. That, hey, I think this doctor is or this provider is really going to go all the way for me. Yeah.
Building Immune Confidence through Diet, Lifestyle, and Stress Management
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Kara Wada, MD: We've been trying to ask our guests, you know, at the end, the name of our show is Becoming Immune Confident. And that kind of has different meaning to each person. And I'm curious what that means to you and kind of, as you think about your practice or your life?
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Well, I think I, I feel like becoming immune confident for me would be first, I think, starting off with making sure that I'm putting the right things into my body in terms of nutrition and making sure I'm eating nutrition, you know, foods rich in phytonutrients and nutrient rich foods but all the while enjoying right eating and enjoying what I'm eating.
And the second thing I think that is really important is also being aware of what surrounds me. Right? Because you kind of have to realize what's out there that could hurt your immune system for you to be fully immune. And I don't think we're ever going to be fully immune confident because I think there's a genetic component there too.
But I also, I'm careful about what I put on my skin. Anything, even what I eat my food out of, right? So making sure that I'm avoiding toxins that could be hormone disruptors and affect my system. And that I'm avoiding even medications that may have things that could cause side effects for someone like me.
I'm careful about the makeup that I use and make sure I don't use too much. I'm careful about the shampoos that I use. I am very careful. And sometimes my kids are like, I'm like, turn off all the wifi at home. It's affecting us. Can you not see the microwave is going because you've got your cell phone right there? It does though. So I'm very careful like even in terms of Wi-Fi use. I have a functional medicine provider too, and she's always like turn off your Wi-Fi at night. Don't sleep with your phones right next to your bed or in your bed, you know. So doing these little things and making sure that I'm trying to do the same for my family, yeah, I try and do that.
And then in clinic, really, I try as much as possible to practice what I preach and share the same information. Anything I learned that's new, that I think is important information about prevention or thriving, I want to educate and share with my patients all the time. So that's why we have the Facebook group and I try and put as much information, not hopefully not too much information in there.
But I think that's what becoming immune confident is. But there's also that strong component, I think. The immune system is heavily impacted by stress. And we can eat right, and we can avoid all the toxins, right? But keep in mind that if we over exercise, or we are not taking care of ourselves in terms of finding times to relax, finding times to connect with each other, that also affects the immune system, right? So taking all of those components and making them whole, I think that to me is what immune confidence really is.
Kara Wada, MD: We are going to make sure to link to your Facebook group and your website and everything in the show notes, but maybe you can share for those who are listening and aren't going to be able to click on where they can find you.
How to Connect with Dr. Asamoah on Social Media
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Dr. Vivian Asamoah: Yes, I would love to. Thank you. You can find me on social media. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm not really on TikTok and Twitter. I'm not there yet. No. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. But our hub really is YouTube. We have a YouTube channel as well as our Natural Gut Relief Facebook group, which is a private slash public, anyone can get in Facebook group where we talk about everything related to natural gut relief and, try and share information and also receive a lot of information for those in the group.
Kara Wada, MD: There are such vibrant communities and I've been learning a lot. I love tuning in and love seeing it on my feed. Thank you so much. This has been a lovely conversation and I hope the first of many future ones over the years to come.
Dr. Vivian Asamoah: I hope so, too. I've been following you. I stalk you as well, Dr. Wada. I'm like, where did she go? Oh, my God, she gave a lecture. You are such an authority figure in your field and, your patients are so blessed to have you. And I think, yeah, let's keep our minds curious. Let's keep learning.
Kara Wada, MD: Thank you so much. And, um, until next week, stay tuned.
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