SIRS & Hashimotos with Anshul Gupta, MD

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I have Anshul Gupta who is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and world expert in Hashimoto's disease. In this episode, Anshul tells us about how he was a traditionally trained medical doctor who started having health struggles. After not finding any answers, he became trained in functional medicine and went on to open his own private practice. Today we cover SIRS, trauma/stress, toxins, nutrient deficiencies, infections, peptide therapy, and more! Anshul leaves us with encouraging words at the end if you are also struggling with health issues and haven't found answers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• What is SIRS?
• What are symptoms & causes of SIRS?
• Physical signs of trauma
• Modalities to help with trauma
• Testing for heavy metals, Lyme, parasites, & mold
• Common nutrient deficiencies
• What is peptide therapy?

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ABOUT GUEST:
Anshul Gupta, MD, IFMCP, FAIHM Dr. Anshul Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and the world expert in Hashimoto’s disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto’s disease. He is a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician, with advanced certification in Functional Medicine, Peptide therapy and also fellowship trained in Integrative Medicine.
He has worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman. He has helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine.
He is now on a mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions. To achieve this mission he has written a best seller book called Reversing Hashimoto’s. He has also started a virtual functional medicine practice, a blog, and a YouTube channel so he can reach people from all over the world. His blog and YouTube videos have already reached more than 2 million people worldwide.

Work with Anshul: https://www.anshulguptamd.com/work-with-me/
FREE thyroid quiz: https://www.anshulguptamd.com/thyroid-quiz/ 

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://www.anshulguptamd.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anshulguptamd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drguptafunctionalmedicine/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnshulGuptaMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anshulguptamd/

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

SPONSORS:
Save on Healthcare
A special thanks to Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) for sponsoring this episode. I’ve been a CHM member over 8 years and I LOVE that it provides a healthcare solution for my entire family that is budget friendly while also sharing the same values that included prevention and healing. CHM allows me to submit medical bills for cost sharing and reimbursement. CHM is a membership based nonprofit ministry, and it has shared 100% of eligible medical bills for members since 1981. I know where my healthcare dollars are going and who they are supporting and have the option for maternity cost sharing. With the money I’ve saved being a CHM member over the years, I’ve also been able to allocate other healthcare dollars where they matter most to my family. If you want to learn more about whether CHM could be a solution for you, there’s a link in the show notes for getting more information: https://chministries.org/lessstressedlife

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Anshul Gupta: It's not about that you have to go through a very major incidence in your life. Even small things can actually trigger a traumatic response in a person's body. So we all are different, like wired differently, and we all perceive stress in different fashions.

[00:00:17] Christa: stress is the inflammation that robs us of life, energy, and happiness. Our typical solutions for gut health and hormone balance have let a lot of us down. We're over medicated and underserved. At The Less Stressed Life, we're a community of health savvy women exploring solutions outside of our traditional Western medicine toolbox and training to raise the bar and change our stories.

[00:00:44] Christa: Each week, our hope is that you leave our sessions inspired to learn, grow, and share these stories to raise the bar in your life and home. 

[00:01:01] Christa: All right. Today on The Less Stressed Life, I have Dr. Anshel Gupta, who is a bestselling author, speaker, researcher, and world expert in Hashimoto's disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto's. He's a board certified family medicine physician with an advanced certification in functional medicine, peptide therapy, and has worked at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine with Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome to the show to talk about SERS today. You were literally requested by a client, so I'm happy to have you here. 

[00:01:28] Anshul Gupta: Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure coming over here. Your podcast is such a great show showing all this great nuggets and information. So it was really an honor being here.

[00:01:38] Christa: Oh, well, thank you so much. So you worked at the Cleveland clinic and the department of integrative medicine. Are you in private practice now? Are you still working at the Cleveland clinic? 

[00:01:46] Anshul Gupta: No, I'm in private practice now. 

[00:01:48] Christa: Perfect. I don't know if you want to say this or not, did you go into private practice because you could actually practice the way you wanted to?

[00:01:56] Anshul Gupta: It's a difficult question and an answer to give out, but yes. So, being a part of an academic center, there are limitations because, like the functional medicine, integrative medicine is such a fast changing world and academic medicine is obviously very cautious. They want to kind of make sure everything is right.

[00:02:13] Anshul Gupta: We have at least big research studies, backing up things. It's sometimes getting difficult, especially when you have a natural approach and there is no big pharmaceutical company, which is going to kind of fund those researchers. So sometimes our hands get tied, in terms of what we should be doing and what is best for our clients.

[00:02:31] Anshul Gupta: We know that certain things, can be very, very official, but obviously we cannot use them in a bigger, bigger setting because we don't have the bigger research studies backing them up. So that's the reason, like when I started like, doing more advanced things like peptides and IV therapies and things, then, like my hands were tied over there, not able to use them, but now I can use them freely.

[00:02:52] Christa: Yeah, 

[00:02:53] Christa: I can't wait to talk about peptide therapy. So a little bit about you're a traditionally trained MD, I think, but with other certifications, I want to hear about how you pivoted because over the last few years, I bring up this question a lot here. There's been a lot of people who would like to maybe foray into this version of practice, maybe expand, see everything kind of fitting together a little bit better.

[00:03:16] Christa: So, will you tell us a little bit about even your own story and how you kind of. transitioned into integrative and 

[00:03:22] Christa: functional medicine? 

[00:03:24] Anshul Gupta: Absolutely. So I think, majority of the MDs who are transitioning into functional medicine, they have their own health struggles or something happened in their life, which kind of caused them to kind of look and question the system.

[00:03:36] Anshul Gupta: So similar thing happened to me, like I was a traditionally trained MD. After completing my family medicine residency, I was in a busy private clinic seeing patients day in day out. Just a few years into my practice, I started having certain symptoms. I started gaining weight for no reason. I was very tired during the day, like to the point that sometimes I even had to take a nap in my lunch break just to function.

[00:04:00] Anshul Gupta: And then the end of the day, I was kind of feeling brain foggy where my mind was not there, where it should be. Sometimes, like I was not able to concentrate on things for longer hours. And then the worst part was that I was having this horrible stomach pain. This was like a stomach pain randomly hit me any point of the day, didn't knew what was causing it.

[00:04:19] Anshul Gupta: No changes in my lifestyle, had no idea. Initially I thought, yeah, I'm a smart MD. So I started taking antacid medications. Maybe it's an acid reflux. Nothing worked for me after trying those for a few months, like it was not making sense because I did all of the testing, try different medications.

[00:04:36] Anshul Gupta: I had no idea what was causing it. So how could I treat it? So I thought I'm not smart enough. Let me kind of take help with my specialist friends. So I went to these GI specialists. They did for the testing endoscopies, ultrasounds, blood work, like even allergy testing. Nothing showed up.

[00:04:51] Anshul Gupta: Everything was normal in those blood work. They even added more medications thinking that, maybe hitting and trying different things might work out and nothing worked out. And I was only 32 years of age at that point. And I had no idea how would I live my life. with these symptoms, especially this horrible stomach pain, which will just hit me randomly, even during the day when I'm working or I'm talking to somebody and I had no idea how to make it better.

[00:05:17] Anshul Gupta: So that's where somebody told me about functional medicine. Hey, like, listen, these functional medicine is a place where these people go who do not find any other answers. So I said, okay, let me look into it. I got certified into functional medicine and then applied it on my own. So I found my root cause, what was causing my issues, then made a stepwise plan of changing lifestyle, implementing a supplement regimen, and wonderful things happened.

[00:05:41] Christa: Well, tell us about your root causes. What were they? 

[00:05:45] Anshul Gupta: So, obviously being a busy MD, the first root cause was stress. Like, obviously you are young, so you feel that you can conquer the whole world, but you try to overwork, right? You do not pace yourself. You don't have any techniques, how you can handle stress.

[00:06:00] Anshul Gupta: So stress was a bigger, big factor. When you're on the run, you're not eating good. So my diet was not the best, like I was not eating food properly. When I did testing, it showed that my gut bacteria was not balanced. It was dysbiosis situation where I had bad bacteria and less of the good bacteria.

[00:06:20] Anshul Gupta: And plus, like when I did my vitamin and mineral analysis, it told me that I was low in a lot of different vitamins and minerals. Which most likely came from, like my poor gut situation and poor diet. So I was not even able to absorb these vitamins and minerals. So those are all the things which was my root causes, not just one, but multiple of them.

[00:06:41] Anshul Gupta: And so that's where, I fixed my diet, change it, like started, a stress management routine, doing meditation, eating much more healthier, taking supplements for all of those things, which were low into my body, as well as rebalancing my gut, fixing, I also had leaky gut.

[00:06:56] Anshul Gupta: So I also fixed my leaky gut also. So that's what I did, like for myself and within one month, my stomach pain went away completely. And within six months I was off all those medications. I lost 40 pounds during this time and my mental clarity came back. My energy levels were so good and I was athletically so good that I even participated in a 5k rugged maniac and I was never in a 30 person in my whole life.

[00:07:24] Anshul Gupta: So for me to do that was a big thing. So that was a big aha moment for me that, just making few changes. and doing the right things, turn my life upside down. So I said, well, this is powerful. I need to share this with other people. So that's where I said, okay, I'll start looking for opportunities and I want to do research in functional medicine.

[00:07:45] Anshul Gupta: So that's where this position opened up at the Cleveland clinic. Dr. Mark Hyman was a director. He was looking for somebody who had kind of some background in research and he was passionate about functional medicine. So that's where I joined clinical clinic, like, introduce some new protocols as well as develop some base for doing research into the functional medicine model of care.

[00:08:05] Anshul Gupta: Because obviously doing research in this field is very difficult, as we discussed earlier also, kind of no funding. Plus, like the research model is very specific. They want to look at only one intervention. Yes. Right. Okay. Well, you just make this change and then, you see the result.

[00:08:18] Anshul Gupta: Well, but right. So then, to like to create that model or fit this functional medicine into their model was there. And then started over there, like, Learned a lot, during working over there to do a lot of, chronically sick people. And then when I decided, okay, well, I think I want to go more advanced. That's where I kind of transitioned to my private practice, taking care of more Hashimoto's clients, mainly autoimmune conditions, because those are the people, who are really struggling and there's not much, that traditional medicine can offer them.

[00:08:49] Anshul Gupta: Yeah, that's where I found the connection. 

[00:08:52] Christa: Yeah, okay. Your story is so much like so many people's story, right? Took all the things didn't find thing and that's 1 definition of functional medicine. Well, you've tested out of this 1. you can go try some different type of testing, different type of holistic interventions.

[00:09:09] Christa: And I always try to summarize this into just a statement. And I think your story define this very well. It's removing barriers to success and filling in the deficiencies. So, removing barriers Toxicities and improving deficiencies essentially is the bottom line question for you as you stated 1st, I was thinking stress is a common domino because with stress, you suppress digestive enzyme and stomach acid function, which allows got things to kind of come in, take up residence.

[00:09:38] Christa: And you said, oh, I had to realize that stress was a big piece of it. And so often people will complain that their provider doesn't hear them. They're not able to help them. And I said, your provider is probably also struggling with some of the same things you're struggling with. And I have a question about, when you're in regular medical practice, you're seeing a lot of clients every day. It is a challenge. It's probably not exactly how you would like to practice. 

[00:10:01] Christa: Did you have a hard time stopping to improve stress? Were you able to do this maintaining the practice you were in? Or did you have to take a little bit of a pause from the work that you were doing? What was that like?

[00:10:13] Christa: Because people struggling to improve or change how stress is manifesting in the body is such a huge barrier. 

[00:10:23] Anshul Gupta: No, absolutely. So again, it is always difficult because, when you're working in a remote area and there is so much need, like there are literally no doctors, who are in that area.

[00:10:32] Anshul Gupta: So everything just comes on to you. So you want to do good, but if you or yourself are not in good health, how are you going to serve other people? So absolutely. I had to take a step back. I think it was more about pacing in terms of, okay, well, I'm seeing these number of clients or patients and I will take a break.

[00:10:48] Anshul Gupta: So I scheduled like 15 minutes break, During my days, instead of taking like a big break of an hour, I kind of broke it down into 15 minutes, during this whole day. So I was able to take four breaks. So I think that helped me a lot and kind of pacing myself and taking my own time.

[00:11:05] Anshul Gupta: And in those 15 minutes, I will do a quick, like, either a deep breathing or a meditation, like, for maybe just for a minute. And I think that settled, like me a lot. 

[00:11:15] Christa: You're exercising your nervous system four times a day. Right. 

[00:11:18] Anshul Gupta: Exactly. And obviously like I was doing this big, like long meditation in the morning.

[00:11:21] Anshul Gupta: So I was doing at least 30 minutes to 40 minutes of meditation in the morning. And then plus, taking these breaks for deep breathing, like all slight meditation during this day, I think pacing was very important, like just kind of taking a break helped me a lot.

[00:11:36] Christa: Was it challenging for you to start meditating like that in the morning? 

[00:11:40] Anshul Gupta: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, first thing, I had no, because I have never done it before. So I was like, and nobody taught me. So I was like, okay, well, is this the way you should be doing it? Am I doing it correctly?

[00:11:49] Anshul Gupta: I'm sure this is the wrong way of doing it. And then like, gazillion thoughts come to your mind and you have no idea how to stop them. So I think slowly and slowly, like, talking to other people and just listening to other people talk about it during their podcasts and things was helpful that, you just do it.

[00:12:07] Anshul Gupta: And slowly and slowly, it gets better and you kind of get the hang of it. And I think it did. 

[00:12:12] Christa: Yeah, practice failing, practice failing to improve. Okay. So many questions. Let's talk about what research you started doing at the Cleveland Clinic.

[00:12:20] Christa: And then let's jump into some of these conditions and defining SIRS. So tell us a little bit about your research and how you ended up talking more about chronic inflammatory response or systemic inflammatory response syndrome. 

[00:12:32] Anshul Gupta: So actually like, my research was mainly towards Hashimoto's disease.

[00:12:35] Anshul Gupta: So again, when I was working over there, I attracted these females, middle aged females, all similar symptoms as mine. And again, the denominator was that they were doing what they were doctors want to do, but they were not getting better. And they all had Hashimoto's disease, even in functional medicine, in a world, they are not many functional medicine providers who look at Hashimoto's disease as a serious threat.

[00:12:57] Anshul Gupta: Most of the time they will say, okay, well, just remove the synthetic levothyroxine with a natural thyroid medicine. And that's pretty much it. And obviously that was not the solution. That was not the complete thing. So I wanted to look more deeper into that. So I looked into the, what was the root cause approach?

[00:13:14] Anshul Gupta: Like what all things were affecting this Hashimoto's disease. Made this protocol to see that, okay, if that works or not. So applied that protocol into several of my clients. And obviously we saw great results that, first, very first time, we saw that their antibody levels were going low and obviously the symptom score was getting better.

[00:13:33] Anshul Gupta: So we were following at least 11 clients during this time and. All of their antibody levels, went low in a very short duration time of four months. And plus, their symptoms score improved significantly. So that was a big thing that, obviously these clients have been taking these medicines for a long time.

[00:13:47] Anshul Gupta: So for such a short amount of time, seeing these changes were very reassuring and as well as also eye opening that, okay, well finally we can do something to safeguard the thyroid their.

[00:14:04] Anshul Gupta: Like all these symptoms that they have inflammation is creating, like, all these damages that these people are going through. And that's where the surge, like came into place. And that's where it got me interested. 

[00:14:16] Christa: I also love Hashimoto's because there is a lot of opportunity, just like your story, literally, I was waiting for you to tell me that you were diagnosed with Hashimoto's and your story, or you were diagnosed with one of these other names of something, because it was sounding so much like it, because to me, Hashimoto's has a gut component. 

[00:14:34] Christa: Maybe when you cross into the autoimmune spectrum, I think food plays an even bigger role. It seems to be a bigger player in the conversation. Isn't it always a big player?

[00:14:43] Christa: Of course, right? Because we should eat whole foods, digest them well, and absorb them. But for some reason, once you cross over to autoimmunity. You can have more issues around it or there's more opportunity with food is what I will say. So gut stuff, food stuff, et cetera. What are some of the other quick root causes or pieces of the treatment plan with Hashimoto's that you guys were looking at?

[00:15:04] Anshul Gupta: So again, a nutritional deficiency is very important to look at, because like thyroid needs a lot of vitamins and minerals. 

[00:15:10] Christa: Yes. 

[00:15:11] Anshul Gupta: Toxins again, major problem. And then chronic infections, again, issues, whether it's viral, whether parasites, Lyme disease or anything else.

[00:15:20] Anshul Gupta: So these are again, other factors that, we looked into Hashimoto's for all of our clients. 

[00:15:24] Christa: Okay. 

[00:15:25] Christa: So. I know we came here to talk about SERS, which means we're going to talk about all kinds of things instead of just that, because one of my clients came and said, I heard Dr. Gupta on this podcast and I loved him talking about SERS.

[00:15:37] Christa: Do you think I have SERS? I said, well, I kind of feel like this is just a big umbrella diagnosis. Like when we say, and granted. I have an entire Instagram presence around inflammation, but inflammation is a bucket. And so, to me, inflammation is a big bucket. So I'd love for you to talk and define SIRS, systemic inflammatory response syndrome and SIRS, chronic inflammatory response syndrome.

[00:15:59] Christa: I don't know what is more officially correct these days to use. Will you give us a definition? Is this an actual diagnosis that can be used? Is there any insurance cover? Like, is there any reason to put this diagnosis with someone? And then I know those are big questions. And then we'll talk about the root causes after that.

[00:16:17] Christa: So 1st, just differentiate between the 2. What's more correct? And then is it valid to give this diagnosis? In your opinion. 

[00:16:24] Anshul Gupta: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So again, as you said, like serves as systemic inflammatory response syndrome. So in this situation, basically your body is going through a complete inflammation cascade.

[00:16:35] Anshul Gupta: So to kind of know people, inflammation is good for our body, right? Whenever a body get exposed to any external things, whether it's a mouses inflammation response to kind of tackle that. And when it actually reaches a system. Systemic level where it is not localized to that particular place when it reaches a systemic level, then we call it as cs.

[00:16:56] Anshul Gupta: Now some people confuse Thess, which also sepsis situation, which happens in an I C U. Mm-hmm. Where basically like body has even gone beyond Cs. And this is like, obviously an acute situation of sepsis where people, bodies is totally not functioning. And actually whole body systems are failing.

[00:17:13] Anshul Gupta: And those are the people definitely need a lot of support. Sometimes their blood pressures are falling. Obviously they're not doing good. 

[00:17:19] Christa: Yeah. 

[00:17:19] Anshul Gupta: Now what they noticed was that in these ICU people before going into the sepsis, they sometimes showed these signs of SERS. And that's where this terminology came into play.

[00:17:29] Anshul Gupta: So, okay, well, there is this inflammation going on. So actually first of all in terms of whether it's a valid diagnosis, yes, it is a valid diagnosis. A lot of people are using this because there are certain criteria is actually, which has been defined for serves for something to actually to quite to qualify a source.

[00:17:44] Anshul Gupta: So there are four criteria, which actually are needed for any, for a search diagnosis. So first of all, is that, first of all, you have to have tachycardia, which is basically. High heart rate. Then second of all, your temperature should be on the higher side, like normal than what it is there.

[00:17:59] Anshul Gupta: And then the third is that, your blood pressure can also be lower. So that's the third thing. And then the respiratory rate, which is like, how much you're breathing in, in a minute, like also increases in this situation. So these are the criteria for the SIR. So that kind of gives you the criteria that, okay, these four things are.

[00:18:17] Anshul Gupta: present, then only a person gets a psych diagnosis, otherwise it doesn't. So pretty valid diagnosis. It is present. Now in terms of differentiating between SIRS and the CIRS. So it's kind of a muddy waters over there because systemic inflammatory response syndrome can, is mainly acute in nature. Okay, that's what it has been like defined with and CIRS is a chronic inflammatory response syndrome, which is not very well defined.

[00:18:45] Anshul Gupta: So it's that's not a complete medical diagnosis. The people can think that are people who have autoimmune conditions or a show signs of inflammation, they might have CIRS. But a more valid diagnosis is the SIRS, which has been more widely appropriately studied as well as accepted in the medical field.

[00:19:04] Christa: So there's a ICD 10 code for SIRS. Okay. So when you were describing these four criteria, my brain is over here thinking about root causes of that. Let's talk about what do you do when you see SIRS? And I bet. You see it all the time post COVID because I see these symptoms all the time. So tell me what you do when you see these things, what comes next?

[00:19:32] Anshul Gupta: So what comes next is that what is causing it, right? So whenever, like, you see these symptoms and your mind starts thinking, what is the underlying cause of it? And that's where this whole cascade of first of all, hearing this story or what kind of symptoms they have and what might be the exposure they might have had, which is.

[00:19:49] Anshul Gupta: Led them into this situation. And then obviously like, there are some diagnostic like testing that can be done, that can be useful to kind of know the extent of this, or maybe even diagnosing it or not. So in first of all, like what are the most common causes of like, serves obviously infection is the number one cause, that we see from the surge.

[00:20:10] Anshul Gupta: Now these infections are also very varied. It can be a viral infection. COVID was a very important infection that caused people's Other viral infection like Epstein Barr virus, reactivation of Epstein Barr virus can do it. Several parasites in the gut can do it, like blastocystis, or Entamoeba.

[00:20:26] Anshul Gupta: Those are parasites in the gut which can lead to SERS. Candida infections in the gut, again, can present as SERS infections. Any kind of bacterial infections, obviously, in your blood or in your urine or any other place can obviously, like, very well present as SERS also. Again, in some people, which we have seen, Sebo, which is an overgrowth of bacteria in their gut can again have, like indirect SERS issues.

[00:20:49] Anshul Gupta: And then, like, the Lyme disease and other co infection like Bartonella and Babesia sometimes can mimic also a SERS kind of situation. So a big umbrella of infections is definitely the first kind of thing that people should be aware of or looking into whether that is a chronic infection is leading to SERS or not.

[00:21:08] Anshul Gupta: The second thing is again, toxins, like again, mold toxins are the number one factor again, at this point of time that we feel a lot of people are going through SERS because again, mold hijacks the whole immune system and turns it against our own body. And leads to kind of situation of the SERS.

[00:21:24] Anshul Gupta: Sometimes chronic like, heavy metal exposures like lead and mercury and environmental toxin exposures can also contribute to the SERS but I think the mold along with other toxins are more responsible for causing the SERS. 

[00:21:37] Anshul Gupta: The third thing is trauma trauma is also a very big factor of the trauma, can be obviously psychological, can be physical, can be emotional.

[00:21:45] Anshul Gupta: Any of these traumas, can have shown that they can again lead to SERS because whenever we get exposed to any kind of trauma, our body mounts it an inflammation response or an acute response. And sometimes when the trauma doesn't go away, this inflammation response keeps on sustained.

[00:21:59] Anshul Gupta: And that can also lead to the SERS causes also. And then any kind of autoimmune conditions, like, because our body's immunity is broken down in that situation, whether it's Hashimoto's rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or MS, or anything. So whenever they have a flare up of those autoimmune conditions, definitely leads to a big trigger of SERS also.

[00:22:20] Anshul Gupta: So there is another thing that, is also very common and needs to be looked into. So beyond that, like the, obviously from the medical perspective, they also feel that burns, like if somebody has going through any major surgeries, if they have gone through any burn situations then that can again lead to also serves in this aspect.

[00:22:42] Christa: How about head trauma? 

[00:22:44] Anshul Gupta: Yes, absolutely. 

[00:22:47] Christa: Super interesting. 

[00:22:49] Anshul Gupta: Yeah. And again, a lot of people might think that head trauma is okay. Well, they're in a major accident. We're not talking about this head trauma. We're even talking about concussions, right? So small, like head traumas, concussions that people might have had on the regular basis that can again, certainly lead to this kind of situation too.

[00:23:06] Christa: So I want to get into some of the things we can do about infections, toxins, but in trauma, as an MD, how do you help people realize and address that without just making them feel like you're referring them to a psychologist? How do you address trauma in practice? 

[00:23:24] Anshul Gupta: So that's the toughest piece because obviously like it's not a recognized thing.

[00:23:29] Anshul Gupta: Whenever we talk about trauma or whenever we talk about stress, everybody thinks that they have to go through the worst situation in their life. Oh, well, it was not a big deal, right? People have gone through even worse things. I often hear these sentences from people and I always tell people is that it's not about that.

[00:23:47] Anshul Gupta: You have to go through a very major incidence in your life. Even small things, can actually trigger a traumatic response in a person's body. So we all are different, like, wired differently, and we all perceive stress in different fashions. Now, we all know that, there was a research study done, which is a study, with adverse childhood events, like even people who have been exposed to trauma a child.

[00:24:13] Anshul Gupta: When they grow up being an adult, they have very high chances of having several diseases, including autoimmune diseases, cancers, being obese and obviously psychological disorders. So people cannot even fathom just being exposed to trauma as a child can lead to diseases in the future. So that's a big shift that, like always tell people about is that.

[00:24:33] Anshul Gupta: The trauma is personal. It's not a generalized thing. So if something has happened to you and your body is showing signs of trauma, that means your body is affected physically. You psychologically, you might be very strong. You might not be showing the effects of it, but physically your body is, and there are two different components of your body.

[00:24:51] Anshul Gupta: So if you physically, your body is showing changes to it, then we need to address it and we need to recognize it. 

[00:24:57] Christa: What physical signs of trauma do you say? You need to address the trauma for

[00:25:05] Anshul Gupta: so various signs that, what commonly I see when people, like have underlying trauma issues, are that, they have chronic pain, chronic pain in different parts of the body, like they always keep complaining about it.

[00:25:16] Anshul Gupta: They're always tired, like even after doing several things, they're tired. Their brain, which is what I call his brain fog is a very important symptom of these people that they cannot process information. They processing speeds are very slow, or they're not able to concentrate on things. Mood changes like small things will tick these people off.

[00:25:35] Anshul Gupta: They'll be the best people, but suddenly like, something will happen around them and they will get angry very quickly. Like these are the things anxiousness, or anxiety symptoms are also very important things, which I see in a lot of these folks. So these are the main symptoms that, again, if people are having it and they've done everything else and still not seeing the things 

[00:25:56] Anshul Gupta: Oh, yes. And being sensitive. Like, these people are very sensitive things around them. These are the people, which will be like, I can only eat five food. Mm-hmm. Because if I eat more than that, then you know, I just react to it. Or if anybody, like if I go to any restaurant or any public place and anybody has a strong perfume, And I just completely react to it.

[00:26:14] Anshul Gupta: So these are again, signs and symptoms that, they might be an underlying trauma that we need to look at least. 

[00:26:19] Christa: What do you refer people to for trauma? Since it is a very difficult thing, probably still in development, by the way, I'm sure we're all open to even better tools for trauma, but what are you currently doing?

[00:26:30] Anshul Gupta: So first of all letting people know that, I'm not the best specialist for that and I cannot handle it. So I think we need other people's help. So psychologists, are the people that, like we would like to kind of seek help with. There are a couple of specific trauma therapists like EMDR therapy, has been my go to a lot of people like it.

[00:26:47] Anshul Gupta: Then the DNRS system, the dynamic neural retraining system, is again, my go to. So these are the two go to places which people can have access to. I refer them out first and get them aware of these two situations to help them out. Otherwise, like, acupuncturists are also useful.

[00:27:04] Anshul Gupta: Sometimes they can be kind of help in rebalancing things. But I think the trauma works much more deeper and a personal work. And I think that's where EMDR therapy or a psychologist who is really good, in these particular realms is the most helpful. 

[00:27:18] Christa: Perfect. All right, let's go back to infections and toxins and let's talk about testing, because the reason people would really love to have a diagnosis is because they would love to have a reason feel this way right after being told that they don't have a reason. 

[00:27:32] Christa: So, with these root causes, fortunately, we have testing that sometimes shows the root causes very clearly and sometimes.

[00:27:38] Christa: I think the symptoms show this cause more clearly. Can you talk a little bit about testing for parasites and Lyme, which I feel like are there's some gray area with this. What do you want to say about testing parasites in line? 

[00:27:53] Anshul Gupta: Yes, absolutely. Correct. Like it's, there is so much gray area that, every six months or every one year, we all are changing paradigms about, especially about Lyme disease and how to manage it and how you want to diagnose it right. 

[00:28:04] Anshul Gupta: So parasites, again, the stool test, is still like, The way to kind of see if we can diagnose parasites, obviously there are several gut testing now these available. So always choosing a good lab in that front is important. And generally most people will just do one day of stool sample collection for parasites, but for parasites, I think a three day collection is very important because sometimes you will not see it in one day, but three days, increases the probability of diagnosing those parasites.

[00:28:31] Anshul Gupta: So that's the case of doing checking for parasites. There is some muscle testing that can be done, like for parasites, not many research studies support it. So again, I don't know like, whether those are accurate or not, but some of my clients have used it and they actually done a parasite cleanse based on that.

[00:28:47] Anshul Gupta: And they felt good. So again, that is an option available, but in terms of the research, obviously the gut or the stool test, a three day stool test is the best chance in that, 

[00:28:55] Christa: do you practice muscle testing? 

[00:28:58] Anshul Gupta: I don't. 

[00:28:58] Christa: Yeah, I don't either. I was actually trained in it very early on right out of college.

[00:29:03] Christa: have some respect for it, but there's pros and cons to everything and so I do like stool testing. Again none of them are perfect. I will often use a combination of a couple of different things. If I'm very suspicious of parasites and people have not gotten answers before and I definitely want them to get answers.

[00:29:18] Christa: What are you using for parasite testing and for Lyme disease testing? If you're doing it. 

[00:29:24] Anshul Gupta: So Genova is my go to lab, because, the clinic, we did a lot of research with them and we felt that, they have been in the field for the longest time and their testing is the best. So Genova stool test is what we use.

[00:29:33] Anshul Gupta: That they have a three day test available for parasites specific. So that's what basically what we use most of the time. Obviously for blastocystis they also use, like antigen testing also along with looking at the microscope. So that increases the probability because blastocystis is the most common parasite, which is actually present world over.

[00:29:52] Anshul Gupta: So that's the reason, like we want to be more about it. So we are using Genova at this point of time. 

[00:29:57] Christa: Do you ever get negative testing for parasites. And then the symptoms drive you to treatment anyway. 

[00:30:07] Anshul Gupta: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, again, as I said, there is no perfect test out there, for each and everything, the functional medicine is that gray medicine where the testing sometimes is only a tool.

[00:30:16] Anshul Gupta: It is not a perfect tool. It is only a tool. So yeah, a lot of people have these gut related symptoms. We had done everything for them. But you know, like their symptoms are very specific for parasites. So sometimes we do go on a parasite cleanse for them. Now, again, we don't use a lot of like, strong antibiotics for it or anti parasitic medications.

[00:30:33] Anshul Gupta: We are relying more on herbal treatments and most of these herbal treatments are more focused on actually rebalancing the gut microbiome, rebalancing the gut immunity. So their body can eliminate that parasite instead of being an anti. microbial, which is going to directly hit that parasite. And sometimes can also be detrimental for your gut health in the long term basis.

[00:30:54] Anshul Gupta: So I feel that sometimes it is justified to treat these parasites, even though the testing might be negative, especially if you're using the natural approach. 

[00:31:02] Christa: What did you use for Lyme disease testing currently? 

[00:31:06] Anshul Gupta: So we actually do the Lyme testing is the last. Okay. So first of all, the problem is that If I cannot treat something, like why do even test for it?

[00:31:14] Anshul Gupta: So that's the situation, like there are so many different protocols available. Yeah. And first of all, we are a completely virtual practice. So what I realized, like after doing Lyme disease treatment is that that needs extensive followup and sometime needs IV like treatments for it and long term prescription things.

[00:31:30] Anshul Gupta: And, like, being a virtual practice, we were just not completely geared off, like doing it. So we gave up completely. Like I said, Lyme is not a forte, but in reality, what I realized was that the more and more I learn about Lyme it's a chronic parasite. Once it enters our body, it remains in the cells like any other chronic viral infections. And we just have to create this conducive environment of our body's immunity. And if we do that, Then, like the Lyme doesn't cause too much of a problem. 

[00:31:58] Anshul Gupta: So I will say like in my practice, since I realized it and we have worked on their whole immunity, very few people I had to refer out for Lyme treatment.

[00:32:06] Anshul Gupta: Most of the time we just are able to kind of take care of things, just by working on all of the other things. 

[00:32:11] Christa: I'm really glad I asked you that because that's how I feel as well. When people tell me they went to a specialist and did Lyme testing and all this other stuff before they did what I would consider more primary testing. stool test, other things, I think they're kind of missing, they're trying to jump to the third level instead of dealing with the first level stuff. So I do see that sometimes in consults. So thank you for sharing. 

[00:32:33] Anshul Gupta: Often, often, I'm so actually astonished that people come to see me. Oh, like I've done all the testing.

[00:32:38] Anshul Gupta: I've done every treatment. I said, okay, well, maybe then I'm not the right practitioner. They said, well, but we have heard so much. Why don't we try it? I said, okay. And the first thing. I asked, he said, what are you eating? And they're eating trash. I said, well, your doctor did not even pay attention to your lifestyle changes.

[00:32:52] Anshul Gupta: No, he told me eat whatever you like. I said, he's giving you tons and tons of antibiotics for more than a year. And he didn't even bother to ask you what you're eating, what you're drinking, and then how you're managing stress. What is going on in your gut? What are your toxin levels? And just directly going to that, Lyme testing.

[00:33:09] Anshul Gupta: So absolutely, I'm on board too. I always tell people that your Lyme is the last thing that anybody should be looking at. There are so many low hanging fruits. That's the first thing that people should be looking into. Lifestyle being the cornerstone. Definitely. Everybody needs to improve their lifestyle.

[00:33:24] Anshul Gupta: It doesn't matter whether they have Lyme or not. 

[00:33:26] Christa: Speaking of low hanging fruit and lime loving the body, I think that takes us to toxic burden because many smart people say that terrain theory has a lot to do with toxic burden and the more toxic burden, the more these things just love to take up residence here.

[00:33:42] Christa: And I think trauma as well as an aside for sure. So let's talk about toxic burden. We'll talk about mold next. Let's talk about heavy metal exposure first. How are you testing heavy metal exposure? And what are you doing if you find it? 

[00:33:55] Anshul Gupta: So again, heavy metal exposure, like there are three times of testing, which are available.

[00:33:59] Anshul Gupta: Either you do a blood analysis to check your heavy metals. The second one is a hair. And the third one is urine. The blood one, only gives us acute exposure. So it doesn't give us a chronic total burden. So I don't do that very often. So the only thing I use it, either a urine or a hair sample for our heavy metal testing.

[00:34:16] Anshul Gupta: And again, then the next question comes is that whether we do it provoked or unprovoked and again, that's a very kind of big controversial topic. Some people absolutely believe that we should be doing all the provoked testing because we do not do a lot of chelation therapy, like, with the normal chelators.

[00:34:32] Anshul Gupta: And again, we believe in more gentle, natural chelators. So we, a lot of times do unprovoked testing and that's the time. Sometimes we do hair analysis more than the urine, but those are my go to testing either hair or urine. And now the next step is obviously, if you find like, heavy metals, like lead, mercury or ~aluminum or arsenic, what do we do about them?

[00:34:52] Anshul Gupta: So our protocols are very, very general in terms of ~working with the heavy metals. We don't want to do a very heavy chelation therapy because I've seen backfiring a lot of people. And again, a lot of people having die off reactions, so we didn't like them. So we use natural chelators, again, supplements, which have these natural chelating properties, plus obviously supporting all of their detox channels, which are there in the body.

[00:35:17] Anshul Gupta: And then obviously using some specific, like, supplements, which can, target. Whatever heavy metals is present in the body. So that's what our approach is. 

[00:35:25] Christa: I feel exactly the same as you. What hair tissue testing are you using? 

[00:35:31] Anshul Gupta: Genova has a good test that we use it or either we go to urine.

[00:35:34] Anshul Gupta: So those are the two ones that we use again. 

[00:35:35] Christa: Cool. All right. Let's talk about the big elephant in the room. Mold, I would imagine is a pretty big root cause when you are looking at, sirs when you were talking about the symptoms of serves. I was like, this is a very much adrenal as well.

[00:35:48] Christa: And so mold takes out the adrenal. It basically ruins everything in my opinion. Right. It's like, doesn't have any limits and it looks like a lot of different things, unfortunately. So it looks like Hashimoto's. It looks like a zillion food sensitivities. It looks like getting allergy testing and reacting to everything.

[00:36:04] Christa: And so some I've had a lot of big aha moments around mold related to it can be mild to moderate exposure. You can have an earlier childhood exposure. And then when you have a little exposure later, you're more of the canary in the coal mine than maybe the people you live with. So, very interesting. Tell me about your journey discovering molds with your clients..

[00:36:25] Anshul Gupta: Yeah. So I mean, mold actually has been known to have causing a lot of medical issues, but those are happening more in livestock or animals. We have animal studies that mold toxins have been present and real for them for like, a decade now. But nobody thought that if that can affect the animals, it can also affect the humans.

[00:36:44] Anshul Gupta: So finally, like, some brainy people actually put two and two together and thought, well, all of these chronic conditions, maybe, like the mold exposure is a very important reason for it. And that's where, like in the last 10 years or so that we have started looking for into the mold exposure.

[00:36:59] Anshul Gupta: And what we realize is that definitely mold is such a big trigger for autoimmune conditions, for people who have not been. Like given a proper diagnosis, but they have all of these symptoms and they don't know what to do with that. Because again, mold causes hijacking of the whole immune system, turning the body against his own system.

[00:37:17] Anshul Gupta: And again, obviously it's a toxin for our body. So again, overburdening our detox system. And again, so body basically crumbles down. So none of the body works for us. And that's where the mold turns our own body against it. 

[00:37:30] Anshul Gupta: Now, the problem is that how to test for mold, right? Because there was no proper testing available, like, and they still, if you go to a conventional doctor, they will say, Oh, well, they're talking about black mold, mold that goes in the lungs, but they're not talking about mold toxins.

[00:37:43] Anshul Gupta: So there are two different things that we're talking about. And in conventional sense, there is no. Toxin test to check for mold toxins. So finally, like we have a couple of companies now that do check for mold toxins, so we still have to rely on them. Now, are they perfect? Like are they completely reliant on, not really, but you know, can they give us some indication? Absolutely. 

[00:38:03] Anshul Gupta: So again, a lot of the functional testing is like that only that there's no perfect testing. But let's say if a person, gives a mold sample and he or she has three mold toxins, which are like completely sky high. Well, that does mean that at least mold is playing a role.

[00:38:18] Anshul Gupta: It might not mean that, that person, all those numbers are where they should be, but I think that's a good generalized indicator that, okay, something is going on over there. 

[00:38:27] Christa: And I don't always bring in mold testing right away. I definitely do a lot of screening. Sometimes it has to come in later, but I have found many times, and I think it depends on the treatment that's been done before, but I've found many times that even moderate exposure, when we start to change the protocol.

[00:38:41] Christa: To address mold will then resolve symptoms that we could not resolve. So on a positive note I've had some, I mean, we're all a product of just experiences with clients. I think quite often. And so I actually did a split testing on a couple mold samples with my same urine and got very different results.

[00:38:58] Christa: I am using vibrant America for mold testing and I do like it provoked because mold testing for me is one of those validation tools for someone to just help them figure out, is this a possible problem? And can we change our treatment approach to address this? What are you using for testing for mold?

[00:39:16] Anshul Gupta: So we are still using great planes, like as a testing tool, but yes, we also use a provoke testing. Absolutely. Because more protocols are pretty intense, if you find a lot of mold in there. So we want to make sure that, if it is not hidden or we are not missing out the opportunity to know the mold, so doing provoke testing, I think, like even vibrant America is great, great planes, like we're using that.

[00:39:37] Christa: They're the original, they do a great job with their education with their resources, et cetera. So I think provoke test give us better results, especially if we have a historical exposure. Right? So so often I hear this story where people started having symptoms in college.

[00:39:50] Christa: Maybe there was more stress. The other day I was having a conversation with a friend whose husband had mushrooms growing out of whatever in college. Right? And that's when a lot of symptoms started. So, when you have that historically. The body stores these toxins and tissue and so to get that out of the tissue and into the urine is what you're looking for.

[00:40:07] Christa: So story and symptoms are so very, very valuable. You talked about nutrient deficiencies. I couldn't agree more. I think it's a big piece of thyroid status. So let's talk a little bit about nutrient deficiencies. And then let's talk a little bit about peptide therapy. So talk to me about how you are assessing nutrient deficiencies because there's really only a few labs that do this.

[00:40:26] Christa: Probably Genova. 

[00:40:29] Anshul Gupta: Yes. Like, you're so used to them and we rely on them so much. So that's what we use Genova for a nutrient testing again. And again they do a good job in kind of telling us because the check in both serum and the blood. So I think their algorithm is good in that fashion.

[00:40:44] Anshul Gupta: And that's where, like, I think these functional medicine tests, have an edge because when you go to conventional labs, they can all or being ordered, but again, the blood or the serum might not be the best diagnostic choice for all of these nutrients. So that's what I think these functional testing are good.

[00:40:59] Christa: Yeah. 

[00:41:00] Anshul Gupta: And the problem is that again, whenever a lot of people are not even aware that, these advanced testing are available to kind of give us an idea about it because the thyroid needs all of these minerals, like selenium, like magnesium, like zinc, like , amino acid, like tyrosine and things.

[00:41:13] Anshul Gupta: Now, obviously the regular lab is not checking for these things, right? So how would you know whether you are running low on these specific minerals? So for Hashimoto's or any other autoimmune component, these play a very important role. Zinc is great. Our immune system needs zinc magnesium, same thing, more than 300 enzymatic processes, right?

[00:41:31] Anshul Gupta: So same thing for selenium, like it's not only good for thyroid, but also good for as an antioxidant and, for poor oxidation process. So these are very important key nutrients and minerals that, needs to be tested or known about the problem is this, it's like a lot of people think that they're eating very healthy and they're getting these.

[00:41:47] Anshul Gupta: The problem is that our food itself is low in these vitamins and minerals. The research study was done comparing like, nutrient density. Our food from 1980s to 2010 and in 2010 on nutrient density, especially for these minerals, is considerably low as compared to what it was in 1980s. So even though we are eating healthier, or we might be making better choices, but if we are food itself is low in these things, then how are we going to get all the vitamins and minerals that our body needs?

[00:42:16] Christa: Talk to me about the most common nutrient deficiencies you see when you run nutrient deficiency testing. 

[00:42:22] Anshul Gupta: I think everybody's blowing vitamin D, so that's one thing that, like I think, doesn't matter which part of the country or which part of the globe that you live in, because we have clients from all over the world and almost everybody's low in vitamin D.

[00:42:33] Anshul Gupta: So that's one thing that we see very commonly. The second deficiency that we see is magnesium. Like magnesium deficiency, again, blood is not the best marker. A lot of people are checking their blood for magnesium, which is not the best marker. So again, serum or urine is the best marker of magnesium.

[00:42:48] Anshul Gupta: And a lot of people are low into magnesium. Also the third ones are B vitamins, especially B12, again, like, everybody has heard about MTHFR issues, but even beyond MTHFR, I think B vitamins would be especially B12, is not. Again, low in a lot of our food, and we see it very often that people are low into omega threes are the other one.

[00:43:08] Anshul Gupta: A lot of people are low into that they do not have appropriate amounts of omega threes in their bodies that we are seeing and antioxidants, especially vitamin C and glutathione. Again, a lot of people are low into these two antioxidants that we also see them. 

[00:43:23] Christa: That makes sense. I would say B12 is low quite often because of poor stomach acid, poor protein digestion, and absorption and assimilation.

[00:43:33] Christa: Lots of thoughts about all of those things. And I used to do comprehensive nutrient testing on all clients. And then I've kind of moved over to mineral analysis, hair tissue mineral analysis, just because of its utility in ratios and correct order of, making sure that the sodium potassium pump is working very beautifully as you said, looking at the blood is not very accurate in that.

[00:43:54] Christa: That's been a bit transformative and finding subclinical thyroid issues and supporting with a very nutrient dense approach adrenal. So, I'm just adding that because there's multiple ways to accomplish things. And so I share that on purpose, because I believe in everything you've said, and 1 of the. 1 of my goals here is I just want people to have an aha moment and realize that there's multiple options for everything that they've got going on.

[00:44:22] Christa: So, if you don't mind the last thing to talk about today that I saw in your materials was about peptide therapy. I have people come to me, loving peptide therapy that their providers put them on. We all love. Things that make people feel great. Tell me about peptide therapy, your use and utility and results that you see.

[00:44:46] Christa: Thank you. 

[00:44:48] Anshul Gupta: Absolutely. So peptides or anything else, whenever there is a new thing that new kid comes on the block and everybody's get excited and they said, okay, well finally we found this one thing which is going to solve all of our problems. And I always tell people, that there are merits into things, but there is, we cannot find that one particular pill or thing, which is going to solve all the problems.

[00:45:08] Anshul Gupta: But I think peptides do have some utility. So what are peptides? So peptides are basically small chain amino acids. So similar to proteins, which are long chain amino acids. Peptides are small chain amino acids made by our own body. The most common peptide people know about is insulin naturally produced by our body.

[00:45:24] Anshul Gupta: We have harvested insulin for a long time to use for diabetes. Now we have at least a hundred plus peptides, which, like research I've identified, which played different roles, into our body. So I call basically peptides are signaling molecules like, these are like molecules with send signals to our cells, to our DNA, to do certain things. That's bottom line to it. And they can be used in therapeutic potentials. So the peptide industry actually boomed from the fitness industry because a lot of people want to lose weight or they want to gain muscles. So that's the reason, peptide, very much used into the fitness industry a lot, but then beyond the fitness, peptides actually now have therapeutic potential.

[00:46:05] Anshul Gupta: So again, in the market, there are GLP1 peptides, which are being released for diabetes. A magical kind of, I will say a revolutionary change after introducing insulin. I think this GLP ones are really good in managing diabetes because they have so many other health benefits to it.

[00:46:20] Anshul Gupta: Obviously we are seeing like, a lot of people are using GLP ones, for weight loss, whether that's good or not, that's a different total discussion about it, but at least, it's out there. So similarly, we have other peptides, like their peptides, which can help with like leaky gut issues, like BPC 157, which is a natural peptide made by our gut.

[00:46:37] Anshul Gupta: Which can be very, very helpful if you have gut disorders, leaky gut, inflammation in the gut, or if you have dysbiosis or SIBO, that can be very nice peptide to kind of get started on. BPC also has a lot of healing potential. So a lot of people, who have a lot of injuries like ligamentous or muscular injuries, BBC again can be useful for those reasons.

[00:46:57] Anshul Gupta: Then we have other peptides which help with reducing inflammation. Most common ones, which I use are thymosin alpha ones and thymosin beta four. So those are the common peptides. Now, thymosin alpha one has promising results in autoimmune conditions. So actually at this point of time, FDA even have removed thymosin alpha one from compounding pharmacies because they are actually investigating it as a therapeutic medicine.

[00:47:21] Anshul Gupta: So, like a pharmaceutical, maybe a company can actually patent it. So thymus in alpha one, is naturally produced, by a thymus gland, which is like a teeny tiny gland when we are growing up, shapes our immune system. Now, and we know that an autoimmunity or inflammation, it's not that our immune system is faulty.

[00:47:39] Anshul Gupta: It's basically the balance of the immune system is off. We have the good and the bad immune system. And in that situation, the bad is actually, creating a havoc in our system. So thymus in alpha one retrains our immune system and that kind of makes it more friendly for our body.

[00:47:54] Anshul Gupta: We don't have obviously big research trials, but small studies have shown to be beneficial, like in Hashimoto's and multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis in those situations. 

[00:48:03] Christa: If the FDA has pulled this from compounding pharmacies to study, is this accessible for you to give to patients right now?

[00:48:10] Christa: And is this prescription or over the counter? 

[00:48:14] Anshul Gupta: So there are actually obviously a lot of companies that are selling peptides, like on internet. So always caution people that, they might not be the best quality. So there are only a couple of companies, which make good quality peptides.

[00:48:26] Anshul Gupta: So work with a provider, who can, get you that resource. So there are a couple of good companies also that, you can get it without the prescription, but there are a lot of compounding pharmacies, which will require a prescription to prescribe the peptide. 

[00:48:37] Christa: What are some of the good companies?

[00:48:40] Anshul Gupta: So peptide sciences is one, which is a good company out of Canada, there is another company called can labs, which again have good practices. So those are the two ones that, we have used the most oftenly for our clients.

[00:48:53] Christa: Awesome. 

[00:48:54] Christa: We've really covered quite the gamut today.

[00:48:56] Christa: We came in to talk about SERS, which we very much did. We talked about your story, which so many people will resonate with so very much. We went ahead and covered. A ton of really big things really the what we think probably should be the premises generally a functional medicine. So infections, toxins, trauma, right?

[00:49:13] Christa: And also nutrient deficiencies and then rounded it out with even peptide therapy, so really that was a lot of stuff to cover in an hour. Thank you so much for being so generous. Is there any kind of final thoughts you would want to leave people with or like pep talk? You want to leave people with before I ask you where people can find you online.

[00:49:33] Anshul Gupta: I always like to let people know that there is always hope, to get better. So don't let anybody tell you that, there is no hope for you to get better. There's nothing out there. There's so much stuff out there. So keep looking don't lose hope. If a practitioner is telling you to kind of look for certain things, whether it's trauma or anything, please be.

[00:49:51] Anshul Gupta: Go with an open minded they know what they're doing and work with great providers and look for those root causes. What I always tell people is that if you're not better, then there is one or more root cause, which either you have not found or you have not addressed. And that's the reason you're still feeling the way that you are.

[00:50:09] Anshul Gupta: So keep going and don't lose hope. 

[00:50:11] Christa: Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much. Where can people find you online? 

[00:50:15] Anshul Gupta: A couple of places. So, we have a great YouTube channel that people can go up to the channel name is Anshul Gupta, MD, a lot of great information we share about being healthy, obviously for a lot of autoimmune conditions, Hashimoto's, our website is a great resource.

[00:50:30] Anshul Gupta: We have an active blog over there that again, we share research based information, which is anshulguptamd. com for people to go on our website. And then, like, people can follow Instagram or Instagram handle is Anshul Gupta MD. 

[00:50:44] Christa: Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on today. 

[00:50:46] Anshul Gupta: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

[00:50:48] Christa: Sharing and reviewing this podcast is the best way to help us succeed with our mission to help integrate the best of East and West and empower you to raise the bar on your health story. Just go to review this podcast. com forward slash less stressed life. That's review this podcast. com forward slash less stressed life.

[00:51:10] Christa: And you'll be taken directly to a page where you can insert your review and hit post.