In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, I interview Joyce Laszloffy who personally struggled with a crippling sugar addiction and overweight for many years. She experienced extreme ups and downs, trying to overcome the powerful pull that sugary foods can have on us. She shares how, for years, she managed to hide her addiction from her family and friends, often feeling powerless and humiliated, dealing with health issues including high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, fatty liver, depressi...

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, I interview life coach, Molly Zemek. Molly comes from the unique background of having worked as a Le Cordon Bleu formally-trained French chef for 10 years. She is also a certified sommelier. But, with this intensive background in food and wine, she found herself falling victim to uncontrolled eating and drinking impulses. She then turned her attention to gaining control over her eating and drinking impulses and now, as a life coach, helps others ...

You have likely heard the headlines: cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are on the rise. Part of the increase is due to an aging population. But there are reasons that are adding to the increase beyond this. The epidemics of insulin resistance (recall that dementia is often labeled “type 3 diabetes,” meaning that the brain becomes insulin resistant), SIBO endotoxemia, the ubiquity of heavy metal toxicity, and deficiencies of important nutrients such as omega-3 fa...

In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, I have a special guest: microbiologist Kiran Krishnan, PhD. In addition to conducting research on microbiome and health issues, Dr. Krishnan also built a successful company called Microbiome Labs, a major provider of unique probiotic products.Dr. Krishnan has gained an international reputation for innovative thinking on microbiome issues pioneering, for instance, the science and application of spore-forming microbes. His studies have...

Cancer is, of course, something we all fear, a collection of diseases that strike us down unexpectedly and often put us at the mercy of a deeply flawed and exploitative medical system. So it can help to identify the factors that leads us down this path and take action to minimize such risks. We don’t smoke cigarettes, we try to consume organic foods whenever possible to minimize the carcinogenic effects of herbicides and pesticides, we avoid getting sunburned—advice you are all likely familia...

There are a great many emerging ideas to discuss, but sometimes these topics are just not big enough to fill out an entire podcast episode. So I decided to start something I call “Potpourri,” a collection of unconnected but interesting topics that may be helpful in guiding you in your health journey. I’d like to say “Ask your doctor about these issues,” but you and I know that they will, more than likely, know absolutely nothing about these questions because 1) it’s not a pharmaceutical or...

I recently had an experience in which I had to take an antibiotic. Those of you who have been following my Defiant Health podcast discussions, or have been reading my thousands of blog posts on DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com, or my books, especially my latest Super Gut book, know that I advocate for absolutely minimizing our reliance on antibiotics, as they are extremely destructive to the microbiome. Antibiotics disrupt microbial composition of the gastrointestinal tract, the airway, the sinuses,...

It’s a concept that many people struggle to embrace or understand. But once you ‘get” it, a lot of issues in health will become clearer and you can save yourself a considerable amount of time, effort, and money. The idea is to get away from the idea of “treating” health conditions. This is the approach used in pharmaceuticals and employed by most doctors. If, for instance, blood glucose is high, drugs like insulin, metformin, or a GLP-1 agonist like Wegovy or Ozempic is introduced to force...

A former actress and long-time personal fitness coach, JJ Flizanes has focused these last few years on helping people identify the reasons that they often fall short of their goals, goals such as weight loss, enjoying successful relationships, success at work, or just finding happiness. Through her several popular podcasts that include Fit 2 Love and Spirit Purpose and Energy and her books, JJ helps people identify the obstacles to success and how to manage or correct them to finally achieve...

In this episode of Defiant Health, Dr. Tom O’Bryan discusses his unique approach to managing environmental toxins that now flood our lives, toxins that increase our risk for numerous health struggles including cognitive impairment, autoimmune diseases, and cancers. Dr. O’Bryan brings his considerable experience in educating and investigating the effects of such factors as particulate matter in air, glyphosate, abnormal gut permeability, and diet. He has a special interest in reproductive and...

You likely know people who engage in strenuous exercise—a marathon, triathlon, long-distance biking, even just day-to-day exercise—or perhaps you do so yourself. In anticipation of the need for a great deal of energy to engage in such an effort and to increase endurance and performance, many people follow a practice called carb loading. While there are number of protocols for doing so, for most people carb loading typically consists of a large serving of pasta consumed the day before,...

Personally, I take no prescription medications. I do not take a statin drug to reduce cholesterol, nor baby aspirin. I take nothing for high blood pressure, acid reflux, or irritable bowel syndrome. I take nothing for headaches, pain, or sleep—not a single prescription medication. Yet my blood pressure is typically around 108/72. My triglycerides are 40 mg/dl, HDL cholesterol is 94 mg/dl, and I have zero small LDL particles. My fasting glucoses are in the 80s mg/dl, last HbA1c was 4.8%, my...

If you have been following my discussions in this Defiant Health podcast or in my blog, DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com, or my Super Gut book, you know that I have been arguing that there is an epidemic of SIBO going on in the U.S., an epidemic involving every 1 in 2 people. It is an epidemic responsible for an astounding amount of health struggles.  The more we all come to understand small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, the more you have to appreciate all the varied ways this situation...

There are a handful of strategies that you can engage that slow the phenomena of aging, i.e., slow or stop the development of skin thinning and development of wrinkles, deterioration of joint health, so-called hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis, reduction in hormonal status, loss of muscle, loss of bone density, etc. One issue that is rarely discussed is the process of glycation, i.e., glucose modification of proteins. Glycation is something you have enormous control over and...

Promising radiant skin and a healthier life, I'm thrilled to welcome aesthetician Rachel Varga, founder of the School of Radiance, to share her holistic approach to skin health and wellness. Rachel is ready to debunk some skincare myths, pointing out that effective skincare isn't just about what you put on your skin. It's about understanding the role of diet, sleep, and exposure to environmental toxins. She believes that radiant, glowing skin is a byproduct of overall health and...

There are a variety of ways to lose weight: reduce calories, pharmaceuticals, bariatric procedures. But these are successful only in the beginning: You lose, say, 40 pounds over a year only to gain it all back. Of that 40 pounds, 10 pounds is muscle. And, when you gain it back, it is nearly all fat, very little muscle. You are now less healthy than you were at the start of your weight loss journey. And, if repeated, as with yo-yo dieting in which you lose, regain, then lose and regain again,...

Ready to unlock the secret to your health buried deep within your gut? In today's illuminating episode, we reveal the unsuspected ways in which small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and lipopolysaccharide endotoxins (LPS endotoxins) can drastically alter your health. We delve into the underworld of fecal microbes and their dangerous ability to cause inflammation and endotoxemia. Connect the dots between these hidden threats and a host of health conditions, from obesity to anxiety and...

Cholesterol testing is among the most common blood tests run in conventional healthcare, yet it is a perennial source of confusion and, to be honest, abuse by doctors who don’t appreciate the full implications of the values. It may surprise you to know that doctors focus on the least helpful values such as total or LDL cholesterol while often ignoring the two genuinely helpful values, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. HDL for instance is packed with useful insights into your health, as it is...

What if a simple diet change could drastically improve your skin health? Get ready for an enlightening discussion on the gut-skin axis as we explore the amazing benefits of boosting gastrointestinal and thereby skin butyrate or butyric acid. The secret to healthier skin might be a pH shift away. We delve into the importance of maintaining an acidic pH for skin health, and how an alkaline pH can lead to skin rashes and dryness. Learn practical strategies to increase intestinal and skin...

Prepare yourself for a fascinating exploration into the depths of body fat and its varying health implications. We promise you'll walk away with a new comprehension of fat distribution and how it can impact your life. Not all fat is equal; differences abound between abdominal visceral, ectopic, and subcutaneous fat. We navigate these variations and their unique health implications, shedding light on why abdominal visceral fat can be particularly harmful. What if you could reduce abdominal...

Ready to uncover the intriguing connection between Parkinson's disease and the gastrointestinal microbiome? Join us as we explore this fascinating subject with data analytics specialist turned microbiome researcher, Martha Carlin. Martha brings us up to speed on her research endeavors, one of which includes the Bio Collective, a project that collected fecal samples from 1,000 participants, and her venture, BiotiQuest, that developed unique probiotics with collaborative microbial...

Has your dinner ever declared war on your stomach? Imagine if you could decipher the secrets of your gut and take back control. Today, we're embarking on a fascinating journey through the complex world of food intolerances, exploring how changes in our diets and lifestyles may be contributing to this modern malady. From synthetic sweeteners to shifts in our gut microbiome, we'll investigate why this issue, once dismissed as psychological, is now taking center stage in medical...

Monitoring blood glucose, or blood sugar, can be a useful tool in achieving a number of important health effects. You can apply it to accelerate weight loss, for instance, or accelerate the reversal of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, triglyceride blood levels, fatty liver, slow many of the phenomena of aging, and other effects. And you can achieve this by following what I call the blood glucose “No change rule,” meaning allowing no change in blood sugar from just prior to a meal to...

Our great grandmothers were usually knowledgeable and adept at fermenting foods, i.e., allowing microbes to grow on food, thereby keeping foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and meats, from spoiling while increasing the nutritional value of the food and providing you with beneficial probiotic microbes. They may not have appreciated these benefits, but surely at least knew that it was a useful method of preserving food without refrigeration. Modern processed foods, widespread availability of...