The Gut Brain Connection and Why It Matters for Whole Body Wellness

In this episode, we explored the fascinating connection between the gut and the brain and why gut health may be one of the most important foundations for overall wellness. 

Functional medicine practitioner Cece shared insights into the science behind the gut brain relationship, including how the microbiome, immune system, and vagus nerve influence mood, energy, and cognitive function. 

Listeners also heard a powerful real life story from Heidi, who described the journey of her autistic son and the improvements their family began noticing after focusing on supporting his cellular health and gut function. 

This conversation highlighted how supporting the body at a foundational level can create ripple effects that influence how we feel, think, and function every day. 

Transcript

Recording Started

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome everyone to another episode of Wellness Wednesday. I'm your host for this episode, Marilee Marisic, and I'm excited to bring this topic to the table. It's one that you might be hearing a lot about. There's certainly new science, upcoming science about this topic, but it's the gut and the brain connection and how that really integrates. And so you're really in for a treat in this conversation that we're going to take, that's going to take place tonight. I'm joined by two really special friends, and I will introduce them in just a moment. But I want you to just think about this. What if some of the biggest changes in brain health actually begins in the gut? We're going to really talk about that. But science continues to rebuild just how powerful the gut and brain connection is. We're seeing it everywhere. And I don't know if your algorithms are just showing me, but I think a lot of us are seeing that everywhere. But your gut produces nearly 90% of the body's serotonin and communicates constantly with the brain through the vagus nerve immune system and the microbiome. When the gut is supported, it can influence everything from mood and focus to energy, inflammation, and even cognitive cognitive function. And we're really going to hone in on that. We've got a really special story to share to really bring that home in this conversation. But as we get going, my very special guest today are going to be Cece McClintick, who is a functional medicine practitioner who specializes in women's health and root-cause gut repair. And she's joined us before on Wellness Wednesday and is a wealth of information. I know you're going to learn a ton from her. But also another very special guest and dear friend as well, Heidi Ankin, who also has a nutritional therapy background. But she has an extraordinary story that both Cece and I have been witness to with her son, Sam. And so I asked her if she would join us in this conversation. She's so knowledgeable as a wellness advocate as well. But she is going to join us and really kind of kick off this conversation today by sharing Sam's story. So, Heidi, Cece, thank you for being here. I'm just so excited about this conversation today. But Heidi, let's start with you and have you share a bit of Sam's story. I think it just really sets the foundation for this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Okay, sure. Well, thank you so much for asking me. I it's been incredible to watch this journey from our perspective as a parent, but so many other people joining in and watching as we share the developments that Samuel has had. It's just, it it makes me happy that he and his progress can encourage so many other people. So I hope that that is what happens for you all here tonight, that you're encouraged, that you take maybe his extreme case and recognize that this is something that can benefit you or your loved ones as well. So a little bit about me. I am a mom to three boys, and my husband and I have always thought it was important for me to stay home. So that really is my true background. Like I have been a stay-at-home. I did end up going back to nutritional therapy school. That's where I met CeCe. And that was actually prompted by Samuel, our oldest son. He, when he was very young, diagnosed on the autism spectrum. And I just kind of dive dove in science. I'm a science nerd. I love that kind of stuff. So I dove into nutrition, thinking there has to be something here that can help him. And he's 24 now, so that was quite a while ago when really the gluten-free thing was kind of just starting to come on the scene. And so I dove in and we started making some changes and we saw some progress that was really exciting. And it it just fueled my fire. Like it made me want to know more. That's why I ended up, you know, several more years down the road going back to nutritional therapy school. I'm so grateful that I did because it gave me so much knowledge that I could apply not only to his life and the rest of my family, but in this journey now where I am with this company. And so Samuel, just a little bit on him, he thinks a lot of things that kids on the autism spectrum struggle with can look different from one child to the next. There are some similarities, but for Sam, he really struggled a lot with emotional control outbursts. His handwriting was atrocious, just like he learned to type when he was in elementary school because he could not, you could not read his writing. Math has been a huge difficulty for him. Engaging in conversation with people, all of those kind of things, trouble with communicating, like getting stuck on words and repeating himself, empathizing with people, all of those things have really been a struggle for him his whole life. So CeCe, my amazing friend, after nutritional therapy, after we had graduated, she reached out to me and she's like, I just came across these products and I really think you need to look at them. And I kind of put it off a little while. She kept bugging me about it. Finally, when I looked at them, it was a no-brainer to me with what I knew, with what we had learned in nutritional therapy school as food is fuel and food helps the body repair. I knew that we needed these. So with Sam, and that was really my focus, we started him with just two products. I know we're going to talk about some of these as we go. Cece will explain them some more to you. But we started him with just two products and immediately, well, I shouldn't say immediately, but within a few weeks, we started getting comments from his teachers that we they were noticing things in class and he was starting to improve his communication, participation, remembering his homework, things like that. Down the road a little longer, we added in a collagen from this same company. And digestion and bowel movements and gut issues are like those kids, these kids are notorious for that. It's across the board, all of them. And Samuel was not excluded from that. So from the time he was a baby, he had bowel issues. And the collagen really helped with that. I mean, I think just because it's, you know, tightening those junctures, helping the motility, because that the whole bowel system, the whole digestive system needs that motility to move. So the collagen really helped him with that. And we were super excited about that. But then this gut health, comprehensive gut health product that we really want to share with you tonight that came out last October. And so it hasn't even been a year that he's been on this product. And I I can't even tell you like it's almost a daily thing, a weekly thing where I'm we're noticing different things in Sam. It started out with just maybe four days in and with this little spark in his eyes that we had not seen in a long time, like like almost a mischievous sparkle somewhere in there. But other things that we've started noticing as we've worked on his gut health, because that's so impactful to your brain health and how your body, how your brain communicates, how your body functions as a whole, other things that we've noticed is an awareness that he has now of others. And if you know any kids on the autism spectrum, you know that that's not something that they're known for. Like they they don't hold doors for people, they don't usually recognize, or I shouldn't say they don't recognize, but they can't regulate. And so they aren't able to act on maybe what they see someone going through. And and we're starting to see Samuel doing that. Like he can regulate what his mind is taking in and he can act on it now. So opening doors for people, recognizing someone's emotion and trying to empathize through his conversation with them, offering to do chores for people, like who doesn't want that? That's not something that he's ever done before. Things like carrying things into the car and from the car for me, or we noticed that he started communicating better, where he used to his almost his brain would work faster than his words could come out, and he'd get stuck and he'd repeat phrases or repeat words to try and get what he needed to say out. And now it just is flowing smoother, like his brain is able to stay on pace with his with his words. Uh he loves to draw, and he now he told me one day, I really feel like uh ideas are coming to me a lot easier. What else? Gosh, there's just been so many things. Uh to start doing math in his head, which is again, like I mentioned, math has always been a really difficult thing for me. But and and a lot of these might feel like very simple things to a lot of people, like really minor things. But if you have a child who has struggled with these things for so long, if you know someone who struggled with these kind of things, for that to all of a sudden start happening, happening, you know, within a matter of weeks is just it's mind-boggling how much his brain and his gut were not on the same page. They were not communicating his emotional response, like appropriate responses to things like pain if he falls down, has just like it's it's what I how I would respond now instead of hyperactive response. It's got this just funny sense of humor that is like poking fun at people and some sarcasm. It's just I could go on. Like I said, it's almost daily. But again, it's just such a huge testament to the power of the gut brain connection. And when that is not working properly, so much can be thrown off. And it's been like that for Samuel's whole life, and now it's starting to fall into place. It's just a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Oh, you guys, I get choked up hearing this story. I don't know about you. We've been privy to watch what's happened with Sam, and it's been absolutely awesome. And he's just such a great guy anyway. But it's it's honestly just like you said it, Heidi. This is literally just proof of what's happening when that gut talks to the brain, the brain's talking to the gut, and there's that connection, something magic happens. It's been so fun to just watch this journey. So yeah, thank you for sharing his story. My goodness. And I know we'll have you in the conversation even more. But CeCe, let's talk about what happened. Like what I know you really specialize in gut health. And I would love for you just to tell a little bit about your story and kind of what brings you here too. Cause I know you have a gut story as well. You really have. This is very, very keen to you and probably why you decided to do what you do. So let's have you share that a little bit and then let's just start. I've got some questions I jotted down. So, but let's have you just kind of introduce yourself a little bit and why you're so excited about this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yes, absolutely. Well, again, thank you for inviting me to share tonight. I too struggled with gut health all my life. I will tell you, I almost didn't graduate high school because I missed so many days of school, in and out of the emergency room, tubes, you know, up and down all directions, all kinds of crazy testing to no avail, never really getting answers as to what was going on, going into college, going into my young adult life and having kids, dealing with not only digestive health always being an issue all the time, having to know where a bathroom is at, ruining evenings by having horrible stomach aches, you know, turning into things like viromeningitis, the flu, ultimately being even labeled as an MS person and patient. And it's just, it finally got to a point where it all just kind of like came to a head. And I was like, I have to do something. And I knew I wasn't taking very good care of myself. I wasn't prioritizing my health. And so I decided it was time, and I went back to school, became certified as a functional nutritional therapy practitioner with Heidi, and learned like the like the root cause approach, learned how the body worked, learned what the body needed. And it was simple. I just started shifting my habits and giving my body what it needed, and things started to happen, and it drastically changed my health and got me so excited. I wanted to help so many other people do it as well. So I have gone on to additional certifications, specializing in digestive health, adrenal health, mineral balancing, holistic weight loss certifications, like you name it, functional medicine practitioner school, you name it just because I want to continue to learn and help people because so many people are struggling. And it doesn't have to be super complicated when we just get back to the basics and really think about what the body needs and foundationally where it all starts. And it literally all starts in your gut. So that's why I'm so excited to share.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

So powerful. You're a walking testimony of what's possible. It really is. And there's a reason. You're just one of the favorite guests here on Wellness Wednesday. So I'm excited that you're here. And this conversation's important. There's so many people I believe that really truly struggle with their gut. And maybe it's one of those things people just don't talk about. They're embarrassed to share with anybody, but they're struggling. And so we're here to just share that there's hope. And I'm excited about that. So I've got a few questions I'm gonna kind of just kind of prompt you. But so my first question for you, Cece, is can you help us understand what people mean when they talk about the gut being the body's second brain?

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yes, definitely. You you kind of touched on this in the very beginning when you were sharing early. So I like to think of like kind of a helpful way to think about the gut and the brain is that they're connected by what we call the this communication highway, which is our vagus nerve. So maybe if you've been to a chiropractor, you've heard about the vagus nerve. But it is the main nerve that is part of our parasympathetic nervous system. And it starts like right at our the stem of our brain and it goes all the way down through the body to our abdomen. And it's like you said, it's controlling and regulating these different functions in our body, including like our heart rate, our digestion, our immune response. And so it's kind of like this two-way like messaging system, kind of like how we text back and forth to one another between our brain and our gut. And so the brain is sending signals to the gut, but then the gut is also constantly sending signals back to the brain. And so many people have probably experienced this, you know, very similar to what Sam has experienced, but also just kind of more in the day-to-day. Like if you think about how you can get really nervous before you have to do something important. You know, my daughter, she's in college. She just called me last week. She had to do interviews to get into the teaching program. And the night before her interviews, you know, she calls mom and she's like, My stomach hurts so bad. I feel like I'm gonna throw up. I'm so nervous, I'm so scared. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, that is like your gut and brain communicating in real time. Like, this is exactly what we're talking about. And so that is just why so many doctors, experts call the second brain, call it the second brain, just because how you know closely linked those two systems really are to one another. And I see this all the time in in the clinic and with the people that I work with. I work with a lot of midlife women. And so so many of the things that I hear, and I'm sure some of you listening tonight can can relate to this, you know, struggles with brain fog, poor concentration, just kind of feeling totally mentally drained at the end of the day. A lot of women have anxiety, low mood, men too, right? Um, and I hear a lot of times people say things like, you know, I feel like my brain just isn't working the way it used to. And then there's the kids, the kids similar to Sam, or maybe that just also really deal with like ADHD and attention and focus. So what's really interesting is when I'm talking to people and I'm starting to ask them questions when they're coming to me with a lot of these issues and feelings, is I start asking them about their gut health. So I'm like, okay, what's going on with the, you know, do you have indigestion? Do you have heartburn reflex? Do you have bloating? How are your bowel movements? Are you constipated? Do you have diarrhea? Do you have like food sensitivities? And they always like give me this stare, kind of like, why are you asking me these questions? Because I'm here to talk like what is going on in my brain. So, what they don't realize is that the gut does so much more than just help us digest our food and absorb our nutrients. It's literally like one of its major roles is actually influencing our mental and neurological health. So that that's kind of it in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

No, I think that's so powerful. And it's making me think something that you said too. I mean, how many times have I been to the doctor or there's been something that, you know, you're going because you have a symptom of whatever? And I don't know that that in general they ask about my nutrition, ask about my diet, ask about any of those things. And so it's easy to write maybe a prescription for something without maybe going and diving a little bit deeper. So I love that you do that because literally, as we're talking, like getting to that root cause is so key. And I know that's what you you chase root cause all day long, and I love it. So, okay, I've got another question. So, why can supporting gut health sometimes lead to changes in mood, focus, communication, and overall brain function? You kind of touched on that a little bit, but maybe I think so.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

I think it's kind of important to just share like what are some of the the factors that play, like where does the gut break down, which then is going to make when you are focusing on your gut health, like all these things improve. And so I I want to share like some key areas for people just for them to think about themselves and their and their gut health right now. So one of the the kind of main like factors with our our digestion, which which I just touched on, is like nutrient absorption. And so sometimes our gut is just not absorbing the nutrients that we're getting from food as well as it should. And our brain needs nutrients, it needs like B vitamins, it needs magnesium, it needs amino acids, it needs like omega-3 fats. And so if our digestion isn't working well, then our brain is not going to get the nutrients that it needs to really function as well as it can. You touched a little bit on this as well, Marilee and Heidi. And it's just that, you know, we we have to properly break down, for example, the protein that we're eating because that then gets converted into amino acids, which then make our neurotransmitters, which are things like serotonin and dopamine. So with 90% of serotonin and 50% of dopamine being made in our gut, we we need to be able to break down and digest the you know, the raw material that helps us to make those neurotransmitters. So I always tell my clients, you know, you're not deficient in an antidepressant. There's a root cause, and most oftentimes it's it's looking at your gut. I think another big factor is inflammation. So as Heidi had mentioned with Sam, you know, when the gut lining becomes super irritated, when it becomes what we call permeable, like your gut, your gut lining is so delicate, it's only one cell thick. And so just through lifestyle, the the things we're eating, the things we're doing, things we're putting into our body, we get what we call leaky gut. And when we have leaky gut, these little tight junctions, they open really wide. And everything good and bad gets through the gut lining and then can circulate through our bloodstream and throughout our body and go into our brain. So we can have a lot of inflammatory compounds that are just getting shuttled up to our brain. I feel like a lot of people have what we call dysbiosis. It's a really funny term for this imbalance of good bacteria to bad bacteria. So if our microbiome, our gut, becomes imbalanced, that can trigger inflammation, that can disrupt our neurotransmitter production. And so some people can have overgrowth of bad bacteria, or they can have a, you know, not enough of the good bacteria, or they could have both of those dynamics at play. And this is gonna affect our mood, it's gonna affect our memory, our focus, our attention. And then kind of another last area that's so important for gut health and for the brain is what we call short chain fatty acids. These are nutrients that that really fuel our microbiome. So short chain fatty acids are produced from the the good healthy bacteria that helps uh the gut break down our fiber from our foods. And so these short chain fatty acids, they play several different roles kind of in brain health, but they help us reduce inflammation in the body and in the brain. They support, you know, a good healthy gut lining and they even influence the production of neurotransmitters that, you know, affect our mood and our focus and our happiness and all of that. So I see time and time again, I do a lot of stool testing with my clients. So I know that there are a lot of people walking around in the world that aren't properly digesting their foods or they're living with overgrowths or not having enough good, bad, good of enough of the good bacteria. Maybe they're having leaky gut or dealing with inflammation or lack of short-chain fatty acids. And so if you can find a way to work on all of that, like your gut, your gut is this amazing system. It's it works from the north to south. So you have to address the whole thing. And I really truly believe that P84 has literally like every single thing I just shared when there's dysfunction in the gut, it supports the gut to be stronger and and work in the way it's supposed to be. So it's just like it's it's amazing. I couldn't agree. Hopefully, it's kind of like a different way of answering your question, but I just feel like people need to kind of understand where where things can kind of break down.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah, no, I think this is true. And I'll just share a a touch on my own personal journey and literally how I became, you know, my own health advocate. And I think it's important. That people do this. I was 19 years old and I'd had actually by then my fourth root canal. So for whatever reason, that was just a thing for me. And following that root canal, I woke up the next morning and the entire roof of my mouth was filled with infection and it was manifesting kind of through my whole body. I was covered in what looked like a rash. And I literally, and for it for them to get on top of that infection, completely get on top of it, I was in so much pain that it was 16 different rounds of antibiotics to actually get rid of that infection. Well, I'm in my mid-50s now. Back then, they really didn't talk about or maybe understand the microbiome, the gut microbiome. So we got rid of infection. But what that left me with almost immediately following that, I had so many food sensitivities. It felt like I could hardly digest anything. No surprise there. I then had all these triggers with just anxiety off the charts, depression was just followed immediately. And so many things. Then we were just chasing all of these different symptoms of things. And we didn't know then what I know now. Now I would have gone back and said, okay, wow, let's address the gut. And I, you know, eventually found the right combination and the right team of people to help me get on track with that. But it's really made me just want to shout from the mountaintops that when you chase root cause, it changes everything. And gut health really, when we when we came out with P84, just this incredible microbiome support. It just kind of like everything comes full circle because we really have something that can be fantastic to really help support the gut. So my next question kind of goes along this. I know that I just shared my story and I know what was one of these disruptors, but what are some of the most common things today that disrupt the gut outside of antibiotics? For me, what are some other things?

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah, because those antibiotics that wipe out the good and the bad, they're like you're just bombing the whole city. Right. I think one of the biggest things is ultra-processed foods. There's been a lot of research saying that, like for many Americans, even kids, 60% of our calories are coming from these ultra-processed foods. They have the bad oils, they have the, you know, the bad sugars, they've got the food colorings, the preservatives, everything that just can destroy our gut lining and ruin our digestive system. That the high sugar foods, and it's not just like the intake of like ice cream and candy and soda pop, but it's also like the overconsumption of pizza and pasta and bagels and cereal. All of that turns into sugar in the body and can feed overgrowths and damage the gut lining. I also think it is just, you know, other medications too, like we have an epidemic of, you know, chronic use of over-the-counter acid blockers and then ant acids like omeprazole and Tums that's just depleting our stomach acid even more. So we are losing protection against the bad things and we're having a harder time digesting our food, um, allowing overgrowth to occur. And then we've got like the chronic stress, poor sleep, we've got toxins. So it's just unfortunately, it's kind of just, you know, the state in which we're living. And so it's really up to us to determine where we need to make changes because it's going to have a huge impact on our digestive system and then of course on our brain health.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It just boy, it is a cascade when you're affecting the terrain in all areas. It's it it's tough. Okay, so when someone begins supporting their gut and restoring balance, what kinds of changes do you often see?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Well, obviously, big improvement in mood and focus, everything that Sam experienced, you 100% can see. And, you know, Sam, Sam's Sam is Sam. And so he's got the things that he was dealing with, you know, growing up. But there's also a lot of people that, you know, for me, for example, in my 50s, you know, I just you you go through this hallway of life and it's kind of like the lights start to dim a little bit, and you can start having, you know, less energy, poor sleep. So a lot of the things that I see with my clients when we are focused on gut health is that they start to experience things like weight loss, increased energy, better thyroid function, which is going to improve your metabolism, even your brain health, better, you know, managing PMS, PMS going away, less inflammation, better blood sugar management. And I think one of the biggest ones that I see that most people do not expect is better sleep. So I literally can take any, you know, symptom, situation, health issue, and in some way, shape, or form tie it back back to gut health. It's just that that foundational for your health.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yeah, foundational and that important. That's yeah, that's amazing. But I hope that gives everyone listening hope because there are there are answers to this instead of just chasing the symptoms. And I I love that. And I think the three of us are kind of walking that testimony and saying, this works. So when we say this works, many people in our community talk about activation. And so, why can helping the body activate its own systems make such a difference for gut health?

SPEAKER_01 27:23

I uh I'm just blown away. I am so grateful that I said yes to this opportunity because I think um I think it's so easy for us to forget how amazing our body is and it knows what to do, it knows how to function. We just get in the way of it. And, you know, when it comes to activation, I'm always going to be a proponent of helping people to make the nutrients that their body was created to make over just like supplementing or injecting. And so I think it's actually, I think this is really good timing. I'm gonna talk about this. I just do just just thought about this. There's such a huge because I see it literally every day that I'm on social media. There is a huge push right now for peptides, right? And so your gut has peptides. Super important. Our body is supposed to make these gut peptides. So these are they're like signaling hormones in our in our digestive tract that help us regulate things like our appetite, our mood, our blood sugar, our metabolism, even just like the functioning of our brain. So some of the big ones are like GLP1. Everyone's heard of the GLP1. Then for specifically for the gut, there's peptide CCK and YY. And so these these three peptides are just helping our brain and telling our brain things like, you know, I'm full, I'm satiated, I've eaten enough. They slow down our cravings, I slow down our digestion. And so I think people just I try to remind people that our body was designed, like it was already designed to produce these hormones, these peptides, these, these signals inside our gut, inside our body. And just again, we get in in the way. So a lot of times, you know, my goal as a functional health professional, my my perspective is often to ask, like, why? Why isn't the body producing these peptides? Why isn't the body producing these nutrients or these molecules? And that is where I personally believe the activation comes into play because we know, especially through Life Vantage, that you can activate your body to make its own gut peptides. That's literally part of what P84 is doing is activating gut peptides. You can activate your body's own production of collagen. So instead of just, you know, taking in collagen to kind of replenish it, you can help your body make it like it used to before you were like 40. We had lots of collagen. And now the older we get, we just start to decrease it. You can activate your body to make its own glutathione. It's the body's master antioxidant, one of the most important molecules for our entire health. And so that is where I just think sometimes we try to outsmart our own body, and if we can just give it what it needs, we're just gonna reap the benefits more so because our body knows how to manage the nutrients that it makes. It knows how to use them in the right amounts, when to use them, how to use them, instead of us trying to figure that out for our body.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

I love that. So powerful, so powerful. And I couldn't agree with you more because our bodies were created to to, you know, we just need to activate what that full potential. If it's slowed down, gone dormant, we're aging all of life. Life can really slow that process down, and activation is so key to that.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

So, Heidi, I would love to bring you back in for just a moment. So CC's done an amazing job just really laying out like the power of activation and what we see happening with activators. And you have shared some specifics in regards to Sam. And I know you're part of this conversation and you preach this just like we do. So let's talk some specifics. So let's talk about the specific products that you that we know that have we I know we've mentioned Nerf2, we've mentioned the collagen. Can can you kind of go through those just real quick and break down the highlights of what those specifically do?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to. And Cece, you can jump in too if I forget anything. So I'll just kind of start at the base, like at the top, and that's with the ProTandem NRF2. And I do have bottles with me just oh, just so you guys can see. This is one of the first products that we did start, Samuel, on this and the axio, which I'll show you in a minute. But this one is Cece mentioned glutathione, and I think that is like one of the biggest things that this product does is it activates your body to make its own glutathione again at the levels that are appropriate for your body so that you can utilize that. Glutathione is a really big thing in the injectable world right now. And I'm not saying that that's bad, it can have some immediate benefits for you, but again, it's just a supplemental thing where this one is getting your body to do it on its own as it's needed in the amounts that it's needed, just like turning on your own faucet, right? This one also is proven to reduce oxidative stress, which is like cellular inflammation. It's just this like rusting of our cells that happens as we get older from the environment. And it reduces that by 30% in sorry, uh I am totally 40% in 30 days. Sorry, I'm not gonna call my numbers, 40% in 30 days. And I really think that this was a key thing for Samuel, not only include increasing his glutathione, but reducing that oxidative stress in his body because his whole body had been under so much trauma and and inflamed for so long at the cellular level that reducing that just allowed the communication to happen a lot faster. And then we paired that when he first started with Axia, which is just like a little stick packet. It's a drink. And really what it is is brain food. It gives your brain clarity, it gives your brain focus, it helps your brain create the neurotransmitters and communicate properly from cell to cell throughout your body. And a lot of people they'll say it's almost like putting out a fire. And we notice that in Sam, like putting out a fire in your brain, it just calms it so that you can have that clarity and that focus that you need to do all the things that we have to do during the day. The other one that I will highlight that was really beneficial for Sam, I think, for his motility and digestion was the liquid collagen. And Cece mentioned this one, getting your body to make its own collagen. We all know how important collagen is, but getting your body to make it and you're taking some supplementally through this, but that is just so much more powerful because your body knows what type of collagen it needs and where it needs it. Where if you're just supplementing maybe one or two types, you're not going to get the benefits versus turning on your own body. And I really do think that that was a key, a key piece for Sam. And then again, like this was then kind of the main focus of our call today is the P84. And it's these two packs together. Sorry, it's kind of blurry. There we go. But it is also a drink, and you just take these two packets and you mix them together in your water, in your smoothie, in whatever you want to mix it in, just not hot. And that one again, like Cece, she talked all about this. It's activating 14 key peptides that your body knows how to make that it's designed to make in the gut to help you do things like regulating, you know, your digestion and repairing gut health and restoring the balance of that microbiome that she talked about that's so important. And the other really cool thing that it's doing is it's activating like 300, over 300 different genes in our body. Like just think about how powerful that is to turn on so many different pieces of your gut that maybe have kind of stalled out. And that's what P84 is doing. So those are kind of like the main ones that we've talked about today, and just a real quick glimpse of what it is that they do, how they activate or what they activate in your bodies.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

I love that. I take those every day myself, just so you guys all know.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Thank you. Absolutely. It's a must, an absolute must. Oh my goodness. I have loved this conversation and I know people are gonna find a ton of value in it. And CeCe, I think I just want to like leave the open the floor to you to just kind of any closing thoughts. I did I think this is a powerful conversation. Again, we've talked so much about just some key products. We've narrowed down, you know, that conversation of what specifically has been very helpful. And I love that. But let's let's just have any any final thoughts today.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah, I just you, you know, you are, you know your body, you know what it's going through. You need to be the number one health advocate for yourself and just just think about, you know, what what could be the root of what's driving what's going on. And if you are dealing with digestive symptoms, if you think something is off there, if anything that we shared tonight, you know, resonates with you in any in any way, I I really encourage you to get with a person that invited you to this call and just learn about the products because you literally are just one decision away from possibly totally changing the trajectory of your health. And no one ever regrets, you know, like saying yes to something that has an impact on their health. But when our health is taken away from us, we feel totally helpless, right? And so I just, yeah, I'm I just encourage you to learn more and be inquisitive and do what you think is best for your health.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

So I love it. I've loved this conversation, and it's it's been an honor to be on this call with you guys, both. CeC, so thank you for your time. Thank you for your wisdom. Heidi, thank you for the story. Thank you for your wisdom. Um, both of you, just such a wealth of information, and I just couldn't be more grateful for your time. And for everyone listening, thank you for joining us. Every week we do these incredible episodes of Wellness Wednesday with our goal just to continue to educate you on what's possible in your health and to be your own best advocate. And in order, we say it all the time, you know, chase that root cause in order to get well, fix the cell. In order to be well, fix the cell. It all comes down to that. And today we're talking about that gut-brain connection. So please do get back to the person that invited you to learn more about this and ask more questions. And with that, we'll wrap this call. But thank you, ladies, thank you, everyone that's joined us for this. And join us again next week for another episode of Wellness Wednesday. All right, everyone. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Thanks for having me.