14: 4 Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Get Relief from your IBD

Medications aren't the only way to get relief from your IBD.
I'm giving 4 things to do right now that can help give you relief from your IBD immediately.


TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• Using Supplements Properly
• Supplements to try
• Supplements to avoid
• Castor Oil
• Elimination Diets
• The Gut-Brain connection

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Transcript

Josh Dech:

Contrary to what your doctors told you, Crohn's and colitis are reversible. Now, I've helped hundreds of people reverse their bowel disease, and I'm here to help you do it too. Because inflammation always has a root cause—we just have to find it.

This is the Reversing Crohn’s and Colitis Naturally Podcast. Now I do these live trainings in my Facebook group every single week and put the audios here for you to listen to. If you want to watch the video versions of these episodes, just click the link in the show notes to get access to our Facebook group and YouTube channel. And for weekly updates, information, tips, and tricks, you can sign up for our email list by clicking the link in the show notes below.

If you've been hit with the wrong understanding that IBD is this life-changing diagnosis—it can be with the wrong understanding—but it can be a very temporary condition, believe it or not, with the right understanding. Even the CDC recently just came out saying that IBD is not autoimmune, and so the truth is finally catching up—which we're very excited about.

But in this training today, we're going to be talking about four things that you can do right now to find relief from your IBD as soon as today. These four things—we're going to briefly go over here—it's going to be: supplements, castor oil, elimination diets (we’ll talk about several options), as well as what you can do to work on your nervous system and how that translates to the rest.

Now, please remember—these are immediate relief and immediate measures to give you quick relief. They’re not permanent solutions. And we’ll get through some tangible steps and detail as we go here.

Now if you’re new here, my name is Josh Dech. I’m a holistic nutritionist, IBD specialist, medical lecturer, and of course a physician’s consultant for IBD. So your Crohn’s, colitis, and even severe IBS that we do help with—we’ve helped hundreds of people reverse their disease, come off medication, and get their lives back to normal. And so I’m here to show you that there is hope. My goal in this episode is to give you more information in like 25 minutes than your doctor has since your diagnosis—even if it’s been 25 years.

Number one—we're talking about four things you can do right now to get relief from your IBD. The first thing is going to be nice and easy, guys. The first, first thing we’re talking about is supplements.

Now supplements are an easy way to get some relief from IBD—but this depends. We had this conversation... the reason I’m going through these four specific things is on last week’s call, we talked about these and some of the lies surrounding them, and now I want to go into detail about how they work, why they work, and what you can do and some really tangible steps that you can take. This is very important to do here.

So—supplements. A lot of people take supplements. Remember this as plant-based medication. In the instance I’m giving you them today, that’s effectively what they are. It is a temporary measure used to give you immediate relief. But it’s not actually there to give you a permanent solution.

For example, the supplements we’re going to talk about today give you relief from inflammation. They can help rebuild tissue, right? It’s like putting water on a fire—but the fire is still burning. There’s a fire in your house, there’s a gas leak, and we’re pouring water on it but not turning off the gas. So keep that in mind during this process—these are quick relief things.

So the first thing I want to talk about—these are some really beautiful ones that I’ve used over the years with so many clients and we’ve seen some incredible, incredible results for people.

The first one we’re talking about is going to be slippery elm. Now slippery elm—it’s actually the inner bark of an elm tree that’s been taken down and just sort of turned into a super fine powder. You can take this in capsule form—personally, I prefer to put it in water.

So what I’ll do is—I’ll actually take a teaspoon or so, put it in a little cup of water, itty bitty like a shot glass, and mix it with water, let it drip in, and stir it up until it makes almost like gloopy Jell-O—is the word I’m looking for. If you were to take Jell-O and mash it with your hands, it makes this gloopy sensation. That’s what we want.

And what it does—slippery elm is what we call a mucogenic. I’ll write that on the board here. That’s “muco” meaning mucus, “genic” meaning creation. It helps create this gut lining. Think of it like putting a sock on in a shoe that’s causing you pain or you’re getting a blister—it creates this mucus membrane layer and helps contribute to some of that.

It can have an anti-inflammatory and a really nice cooling effect. But again—keep in mind, if you’re reliant on slippery elm to feel better, you’ve not put out the fire. All you’ve done at this stage is just put water on it. Which sometimes is what we need right now—very, very quickly.

And so I can’t give you exact dosing and say you should take this, but what I will say is—I’ve had people take anywhere from one teaspoon to one tablespoon, and they will do that 15 to 30 minutes before food.

By taking this, what it’s doing is getting in—it’s coating the gut—and it can actually create some bulk to the stool as well. So not only does it act as a mucogenic, a soother, a cooler—it can also add bulk to that stool which can help relieve some of the diarrhea you might be experiencing. But it’s also a mediator—if you’re constipated, it can add some nice fiber in there to help things move through a little bit quicker.

So slippery elm makes the top of my list for supplements to give relief to IBD.

The next one, which works relatively similarly, is aloe vera. Now watch for this one. Aloe vera—there’s different kinds of aloe vera. Just a general aloe vera is great—it can have antimicrobial effects.

But you want to watch because a lot of aloes you’ll buy come in like a juice. And so it’s an aloe vera juice which has a ton of sugar and a lot of additives and coloring and all kinds of things that inflame your gut anyway. And so if you’re consuming aloe vera, you can get it in a nice medicinal capsule. You can get the preservative-free juice.

Here in Canada and in the US, I recommend—there’s one I quite like, no affiliation—called Lily of the Desert. I believe it’s the purple one or the green... now I can’t remember. But there’s a purple and a green label. One is preservative-free. It’s got a lower shelf life, but it avoids those preservatives that are causing damage to our gut microbiomes.

And so I like aloe vera. This can be taken—sometimes capsules, if there’s capsules, it can be one to two caps, sometimes anywhere from one to three times daily. Some people take them before food, before bed, or we can even take liquid.

So think 1 oz—again, two to three times daily. But keep in mind—I’m not saying you should take these. I know nothing about you. These are just what tend to be really well-accepted decent dosing for people taking some of these supplements who get good results.

But always ease in, and I’m legally obligated to tell you to talk to your doctor—whether they agree with this or not.

But the reason we say ease into it—because some people taking slippery elm or aloe might get diarrhea if you’re sensitive to it, or depending on what’s going on in your bowel.

So I’m recommending these as a general—“here are some things that people get benefits from.”

Now—we got several more supplements I want to go through, and then we are going to be talking more about castor oil, what that is, how it works. We’ll talk about the elimination diet and the nervous system.

So—other supplements that I like to use in here... another good one: people see curcumin. And we see this one used a lot. You might see turmeric, curcumin—same same. Curcuma longa, it’s called.

But what I want to use is the nano form. I know we do have a link to Nutrine for that one—a great company that we like. Again, they’re just a third-generation functional medicine company.

But nano curcumin or liposomal curcumin is much better off, because curcumin by itself is not what we call bioavailable—it’s very hard to absorb into the body. They’ve actually been experimenting with curcumin and utilizing it in things like growing it in mycelia, like mushrooms, to increase the bioavailability.

Now—if you’re listening to this right now and you’re like, “Josh, I’ve heard all the things under the sun—these herbs, these supplements don’t help me...” You might be a more severe case, and that’s okay. This supplement section may not be for you. It doesn’t mean nothing here is for you—it means that everyone’s going to be unique.

And this is why when we do custom work with people directly through our programs, these aren’t broad recommendations we give everyone. These are general—that we’re saying for the population.

So hang in there—we got more coming for you.

But nano curcumin—it’s more bioavailable. And this one has been shown to help with inflammation. Some people respond extremely well. Again—it’s water on the fire, we’re not turning off the gas, but it can help with some of the symptoms.

So curcumin, or the nano form, can be great.

I’m going to zip through some of these other ones so we don’t keep you guys all day. But other ones I really like—be careful again with the spice, some people are sensitive—but ginger. You can get ginger capsules, powders, you can cook with it, you can get raw ginger.

I’m a big fan of honey lemon ginger tea. You have to watch the honey—again, honey, even though it’s a sugar, can have great anti-inflammatory effects. It can be antimicrobial, even like raw organic honey. It doesn’t have to be Manuka honey. It can be a raw organic honey, which is perfectly fine.

But a honey lemon ginger tea is so good and it’s delicious and it’s soothing, and it can help coat and cool and soothe the gut as well.

Other things that we want to look at—rosemary. A beautiful one to cook with. Rosemary oils, rosemary extracts, rosemary teas if you’re into that sort of thing—these are wonderfully anti-inflammatory, these products, these herbs.

Other ones that we’ll see—I’m just tearing through these quickly for you guys—is boswellia. Super potent anti-inflammatory effects. And licorice.

Now—you may see licorice—people might demonize licorice a bit and say, “Well, licorice is going to be hard on you if you have high blood pressure.” It’s true—which is why we actually have a form called DGL. This is deglycyrrhizinated licorice root, and that takes out some of the parts that can spike that blood pressure.

If you already have blood pressure issues—on the other hand, my wife has chronically low blood pressure, I give her licorice capsules every day and it keeps her normal and she feels better, she’s not fatigued.

So—there are benefits to weigh with these things.

Now—not only do I want to give you the things that I like to use with people, I also want to tell you what to avoid, and give you some cautions.

So in the supplement world—a lot of people are jumping in, using supplements they heard are good. We talked about this last week: not all things are all good for all people. Everyone’s going to be different.

If we don’t have a purpose for our supplements, we don’t have an end goal for our supplements, it’s just plant-based medication. But many of you are looking for quick relief—these ones can do that.

But I want to caution you against a few. I want to caution you against supplements like black walnut. I’m going to list a few more.

The reason I’m listing things like black walnut or grapeseed extract—these types of supplements—they are antifungal, antimicrobial. If you have a fungal or microbial issue that’s contributing to your inflammation, and you go knocking it down to try to lower your levels—and your cup is already full (we talked about drainage last week)—if your cup is already full and it’s overflowing, you have symptoms.

But when you start throwing in things like black walnut, grapeseed... we have different ones that we can use as well, like cat’s claw (which can modulate the immune system—sometimes curcumin can do that too, so be careful). There’s lots of these different antimicrobials: oregano and thyme, lemon balm—all of these supplements.

We have to be careful because you don’t know what’s causing your problem and what is driving your inflammation. By taking antimicrobials, antifungals arbitrarily, you very well may be overflowing the cup when drainage is not proper—contributing to the rest of the problem that you’re having.

So be very careful when consuming supplements. Know their purpose. Know the cause. And ease into things if you want to use any kind of natural herb or remedy, okay?

So—that’s my quick list of supplements that can help right now.

Now, the next one we’re talking about—the next thing you can do to get relief almost very quickly—is something called castor oil.

Now castor oil—some might make the argument it’s kind of a miracle oil. And it can be. You can consume it orally as a bit of a laxative—so be careful with that. But it’s typically used topically, what we call a castor oil pack.

Now you can make these yourself. You basically take a teaspoon to a tablespoon of castor oil and you put it on this pack.

Now there is a great brand, again no affiliation—I just like their quality—and that’s Queen of Thrones by Dr. Marisol. And they’re all organic, they’re all pesticide-free, cotton and flannel, and they’re really high quality so you’re not absorbing more chemicals.

What we do is—we take a tablespoon, I have a pack (I should’ve brought it—I could’ve shown you guys), but it’s this little piece of fabric with some nice strings. You wrap it around and tie it up after putting the oil on the inside. It sits against your skin. You can wear that for 15 minutes a night with a heat pack (if you choose—you don’t always need them depending on the pack you use), and that absorbs and gets into the body.

And it’s best done topically over the areas that are inflamed. If it’s your intestines—most people with IBD, I recommend putting it over their liver, at least over the liver and the bowel, because this helps with so many different things.

Remember—we just mentioned the word drainage, right?

If your cup is full and you’re overflowing, you’ve now got symptoms. Well—these toxins, if we just go to take all these antifungals, antimicrobials, all these things—we overflow more.

But if we want to get things out properly, we put drainage—this is out the bottom of the cup. Drainage is how things exit the body. Drainage is your liver, drainage is your kidneys, your lymphatics, your skin, your sinuses, your lungs—it’s going to go through the bowels and the bladder. These are outdoors—transport doors for toxins and things in the body.

Castor oil can improve this right now. So many of us have blocked drainage and so you’re not able to drain these toxins—they build up in your body, your inflammation gets worse, you find yourself flaring more frequently or more easily, you have multiple autoimmune conditions, you have more illnesses, more symptoms, more skin problems, more hair problems, you have more hormonal issues, cognitive issues, sleep issues, mood problems—they're piling up because your cup is filling up, you're overflowing, and the rest of the house is wet.

We have to drain.
Castor oil is a really beneficial product used for drainage.

So castor oil is really beneficial, number one, because it can help with lymphatic flow. It can help with liver detoxification and bile flow. And bile ducts are a huge part of drainage that most people miss.

But it’s also really great for a few different things—so I’m going to put drainage here on the list—but it’s also really great for pain relief. It can be anti-inflammatory or have anti-inflammatory properties.

Castor oil has been shown to greatly reduce inflammation and pain.
Remember, inflammation is just dilated blood vessels putting pressure or sensitizing nerves. That causes irritation. It brings in the cavalry of all the immune cells and cytokines and prostaglandins and inflammatory things—and this pressure on the nerves, this sensitization of nerves, sends a signal to your brain. You interpret that as pain.

And castor oil can bring a lot of that down and help modulate it. It also empties the cup, so you stop spilling over. It can help in this process of helping you reduce the frequency, intensity of flares or other illnesses and symptoms by helping get things out of the body.

And again, it’s best applied topically. The typical instructions you’ll see will be:

• One tablespoon applied to your pad or your castor oil pack.
• That’s going to be 15 minutes a night, or what I’ll have some of my clients do is sleep with it—anywhere from one to four times per week, depending on how much drainage they can actually handle.

Because—you can drain too much and get sick as well. It’s a very touch-and-go process.

But castor oil can be a really amazing product, and so we do recommend getting high-quality castor oil—organic castor oil and castor oil packs made from cotton and flannel. That way you’re not absorbing a lot of these chemicals and junk that might be in the cheap ones you buy on Amazon.

And this is why, again, no affiliation—I just really like the brand Queen of Thrones, and they do have some great stuff, in my experience.

So the next one we’re going to talk about—and again, we touched on this one last week—the third thing we can do to get quick relief fast: some people respond extremely well, some people not so much. This is the Elimination Diet.

Now, we talked about these a fair bit last week. We went into the carnivore diet and why it works and how it works, and it’s worth mentioning—the gold standard of the Elimination Diet is to cut back to basically nothing.

Now—I don’t recommend the white diet. The white diet is white breads, white pasta, white carbs, white starch, white food, white potato chips, whatever it is—they don’t care. The reason that clinicians, doctors, dietitians might recommend the white diet is because most of that food breaks down inside your mouth by the amylase. That starch—if you chew it for about a minute—it turns to sugar. It’s basically absorbing in your mouth. There’s no mechanical work required by your digestive system.

And so, what we say is: go to the Elimination Diet, but make sure they’re quality foods.
I’ve had people cut down. Some people will go on a strict carnivore diet. Some people can’t consume meat. Some people can maybe do fish or something else instead.

The gold standard would be cutting down to one food and eating that for one to two weeks, and give your body a chance to clear.

And then—some people are going, “Josh, F you, that’s way too hard,” but hear me out. Then we add one food every 3 to 4 days. And why do we do this?

Because IgGs—that’s something we commonly see associated with food or inflammatory food sensitivities—these food responses, it’s called IgG (that’s Immunoglobulin G), and what happens is these take 3 to 4 days to build in the system.

So if I’m eating nothing but ground beef right now—perfect, that’s all I’m going to eat—I want to see what’s causing me inflammation and causing me to overflow, back to the cup analogy.

Most people go, “I’m sensitive to that food, I should cut it out forever.”
 What’s happening is the cells in your intestines are currently leaking—you have this big gap in between them, and so they’re leaking, allowing large molecules to come through, entering your blood—that circulates around and triggers an immune response, because a big piece of ground beef shouldn’t be in your blood.

So it triggers an immune response, and now you’re sensitive to it.
But you’re not actually allergic to it—you just have to seal up your gut. Your body will stop reacting with this immune response, and you can go back to eating it.

So all we’re doing right now is a temporary measure. Picture your cup is already full, and right now it’s just bubbling—it’s got a brim of water. You ever filled up a glass till it has this bubble on top, and one drop too much and it overflows? That’s basically what we’re doing with the Elimination Diet.

That’s why we do these. So some people might go carnivore, some people might go pescatarian. The more you eliminate, the better.

And this is why I say—bear with me. Some people right now—I have people argue with me about gluten, or I kid you not, I had somebody tell me,
“Well, Taco Bell doesn’t bother me, so I’m going to keep eating it.”

Like... you’re making bad choices and you’re on your own.

The idea is we want to eliminate as many foods as we can possibly tolerate for at least two weeks to clear, because these IgGs—this is why we say one food every 3 to 4 days—they take 3 to 4 days to peak in your system, two to three weeks to clear from your system.

And this is why we want to clear everything for at least two weeks, eliminate down to as few foods as you can handle, and then we’re going to work our way back up, one food every 3 to 4 days.

(I got a hair or something stuck in my mouth...)

And so—that’s the idea. That’s why we do it. The more you can eliminate, the more factors you can get rid of.

If you cut down to 10 foods and you’re eating 50 foods right now—it’s a good step. You’ve cut down by 80%.

On the other hand, if you cut down from 50 foods to 1 food, you’re getting more precise results. And so—the idea is: cut down to what you can and work your way back up. That’s why we do elimination.

Some people go Mediterranean, some people go carnivore, some people go whatever, some people go mix—it’s based on foods I know I can tolerate—and that’s okay too.

That’s what elimination does: it just doesn’t overflow the cup while we are working on healing everything else and repairing and getting to your root cause. That’s very important.

What I do not condone, and I do not recommend—and I say this generally speaking, because some people have had really good results with it, and I will never argue with results—even though in my brain the science may not add up and I go, “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. That’s not a good fit. Maybe you shouldn’t be doing that.”
If the results prove and speak for themselves—I will shut my mouth.

In this case, I do not recommend a raw vegan diet. I have seen very few people be successful going on a raw vegan diet—but it’s happened.

But because of the scarcity of the numbers that it’s happened for—I can’t recommend it in good conscience, and that’s why I say that.

Some people go to a raw juice, a raw whatever—but again, you’re taking in foods—if you’re on a raw vegan juice diet, you are not requiring mechanical load out of inflamed tissue.

You’re not requiring your body to run on a sprained ankle—therefore, you don’t feel the pain.

Same thing: If you’re not consuming foods that require your body to mechanically move and manipulate and break down and digest and absorb—perfect. You’re going to take the pressure off.

And sometimes, a juice cleanse does that. But—it’s a temporary measure.
You have to introduce food eventually, right?

And that’s the idea. So that’s all elimination diets are—but they are the gold standard still of dietary sensitivities, and that’s what we want to look at.

So the next thing we’re going to look at—this is number four—is your CNS, what we call the central nervous system.

Now, there are a few different nervous systems in the body. So I’m going to say your CNS—that’s the central nervous system. Then you have your PNS, which is peripheral—that’s going to be anything away from the brain and spinal cord.

So CNS is going to be brain and spinal cord—(writing “spine” on the board... there we go, I’m trying to figure out how to spell “spine”—God help me)—PNS is peripheral. So think arms, legs, etc. Anything away from the brain and spinal cord.

And then you have what’s called your ENS, or your enteric nervous system—and this is going to be your gut.

Your central nervous system has billions of different neurons. Your enteric nervous system has approximately 400 to 500 million neurons.

This means inside of your digestive system, there’s an entire nervous system. This electrical conductivity—it’s wired into your spine, it’s wired into your brain, through like the vagus nerve, for example.

400 to 500 million little connections and firing signals in there.

Now—in birth, your brain and your gut are actually the same tissue. In utero, when you’re in your mother’s womb, they are the same tissue, the same cells. They actually bifurcate—they split apart—and become two different organs. But they originate from the same place and operate a lot in the same way. Similar to like a “gut feeling” or whatever it may be.

And so your central nervous system is the master control regulator that governs both of these. But it gets feedback from your enteric and from your peripheral.

So your brain and spinal cord get feedback from your gut and from your peripheral—so your arms and legs, what you touch and feel and how you move.

In fact, that’s how I stand when I’m looking around. My central nervous—my eye is perceiving, my central nervous system is processing, I’m getting sensations back from my peripheral. So my feet are touching the ground and moving around the muscles, and that’s how I keep balance. It’s proprioception and feeling the ground—this communication between all these things.

What’s interesting there is—like I said—it’s a feedback loop.

So for you science nerds out there, we call this afferent and efferent. These are the different pathways—it means to and from.

Now—I’m getting signals from my enteric nervous system, my gut, goes up to my brain, and my brain goes back down to my gut.

So for those of you, for example, with bowel-related or bowel-induced anxiety—let’s look at this:
Which came first—the anxiety or the gut issues? And they can feed back into each other.

And this is why we have to be so mindful of our nervous system.

Some people talk as if the nervous system is like the be-all-end-all, the only thing you need to focus on. That’s not true—but it’s an important part of the puzzle.

Because if you’re high stress, for example—you’ve got five kids, you’re taking them to soccer, you shove them in the van, pop food down your throat, swallow it like a pelican, don’t chew, you’re on the go... you’re in fight and flight.

You’re not in rest and digest.

Fight and flight means:

• Less stomach acid
• Poor GI motility
• Less digestive enzyme production
• Less food breakdown

You’re burning through your nutrients more, and you’re already at a deficit because your gut’s inflamed, and your body’s just not breaking them down or bringing in what it needs.

So you’re constantly in the red.

And so—relaxing, taking a couple of breaths, getting into meditation, exercising gently—these things are really beneficial to getting into and enhancing that positive feedback—that rest and digest—from your body or from your nervous system.

And so if your enteric nervous system is inflamed, another reason why it’s so important—this is sending signals back to the brain.
We call this a cell danger response—that’s one of them.

It’s going to have some chemical signals that it sends back to the brain.
We have these inflammation processes, these chemical processes, these signal responses saying, “There’s something wrong. There’s a fire.”

So there’s an alarm going off in your body, and City Hall is getting the signal going, “There’s a problem,” and everyone’s on alert.

And you wonder why your gut can cause anxiety—it comes from a cell danger response.

It can be chemical—that’s going to be toxins and stuff floating through the body as well.

We can also have neurotransmitters—that’s another way.
90% or so of your neurotransmitters—your happy chemicals, your focus chemicals, your mood chemicals—they’re made inside your gut.

And if your factory’s on fire, you’re not going to produce what you want to produce.

Therefore, if your gut is inflamed, you’re not going to produce the chemicals you need to keep your nervous system balanced, and now everything gets all wacky.

And this is where the nervous system comes into play.

So we can look at rest and digest, relaxation, breathwork—can be incredible to induce states of euphoria, to put you into rest and digest.

Even simple things like:

• Eating with your feet touching the floor
• Not being on the go
• Taking a few breaths before you eat

That alone can be a really good benefit.

Exercise can be good, and I’ll caution about this one—but exercise can be great.
Going for walks, going for a swim, some light weight training...

On the other hand—we want to induce rest and digest. But all stress is stress.

We have two kinds of stress:

• We have what’s called eustress
• And we have what’s called distress

Eustress is positive—that’s like:
“I’m working towards something, I’m enjoying this, this gives me purpose and meaning. It’s hard work, but I love it. I’m exercising, but I’m into it.”

Distress is:
Stressful arguments, sickness, illness, injuries... overtraining is a distress. It can be both things, but it’s typically a distress.

And this is where I caution: exercise can be amazing, but my caution to you is going to be watch out for overtraining.

We get so many people who are going in—they’re doing what we call HIIT. So it’s high-intensity interval training.

Most of our population cannot physically—I'd say 90% plus—should not be doing HIIT training. If you’re doing it—stop.

What we want to do instead is some light workouts. So we can do single joint movements for right now.
We just don’t want to over-toxify or dump things in the body.

We can look at single joint movements, we can look at 8, 10, 12 reps—not producing a lot of lactic acid, but stimulating your movement.

We can look at things that are not loading the spine, like heavy squats or heavy deadlifts.

But think about movement again:

• Cycling
• Swimming
• Court sports like tennis, ping pong
• Something where you move your body
• And gentle weight exercises

We don’t want to go high intensity. We don’t want to be slamming yourself to the ground and doing super intense workouts that build up a ton of lactic acid.

Because what happens?
 Your body’s already toxic.
Your liver is already full of junk that it has to process.

Your liver filters 4 liters of blood per minute.
Where does lactic acid go from the muscles? It’s produced as a byproduct—it gets into your blood, it circulates, filters in the liver, and it can dump right down the gut.

If you’re someone who gets exercise-induced diarrhea—that’s lactic acid dumping down the bile duct and into your GI and just flushing through you, because your body can’t handle it.

Causes irritation in the gut. Causes diarrhea.

So—are exercises great?
Yes. But it’s about rest and recovery.

So think about an athlete who’s overtrained or they’re injured—what are they doing?
They’re doing light work.

They’re working at 60 to 70%, what we call RPE—that’s Rated Perceived Exertion.
You get done and you go, “That was a 6 out of 10 hard.”
Perfect. That’s the amount we want. That’s appropriate for you.

30 minutes a day, get moving.
This is going to be recovering your body.
You don’t have to be doing a hard workout to be doing benefits for your body.

The exercise is only as good as the recovery—and that’s very important here.

So I want to go through a quick summary with you guys.
At any point, if you have any questions—now is a great time to ask them.

Here’s a quick summary of what we talked about.

Number one—we went through some supplements.
Supplements can be really beneficial, but again, the ones that we listed today were primarily designed for quick, immediate relief.
So these are going to be your:

• Slippery elm
• Aloe
• Nano curcumin—the bioavailable forms
• Ginger
• Rosemary
• Boswellia
• Licorice and DGL

The ones we want to avoid are the antimicrobials—the things like:

• Pau d’arco—that’s one that’s often used for candida
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Black walnut
• Black seed oil
• Cat’s claw

These can really drive a lot of fungus or microbial waste into a filled-up system. So we have to work on other things first.

Even be cautious around curcumin, because it can stimulate the immune system, depending on the case scenario.

The second one we talked about was castor oil.
Castor oil is a wonderful product—it has anti-inflammatory properties, it can aid in lymphatic and liver health, bile flow, it can aid in drainage, it can create pain relief and help with inflammation.

That’s typically done applied topically with a pack, either like an organic cotton or flannel, and that can be worn 15 minutes a night for some people.
Some people can tolerate it 1 to 4 nights a week—depends on how much you can handle. But it can be really beneficial for clearing things out of the body.

The third thing we talked about was an elimination diet.
The purpose of this again is just to not overflow your cup.
If you’re already full or you’re brimming over, elimination is just removing those last couple of drops that would cause your bucket to overflow.

And that’s why you want to avoid it.
 So that can look like just reducing the amount of foods you eat for a good two weeks, and introducing slowly provided you get relief.
If not—reduce back further, and then introduce every 3 to 4 days.

That’s for those IgG levels—that’s the immunoglobulin G, the immune response.
They build up in about 3 to 4 days by consumption, they peak in 3 to 4 days, and take about 2 weeks to come down.

This is why we add one food every couple of days, see how you’re feeling.
If you get inflamed, back off for another week or two, then add another food, and another food.
If you’re feeling good—keep adding the foods.

The last one we talked about was your nervous system.
And that one again is your CNS, your PNS, and your ENS.

That’s your:

• Central nervous system – brain and spinal cord
• Peripheral nervous system – arms and legs, not super relevant right now
• And your enteric nervous system – that’s inside your gut

There are nerves—400 to 500 million neurons—that communicate back and forth, up and down to your brain. Everything works together, and it’s very important to understand these connections because most people just brush them off.

And the information we give you here, guys—like I said, this is more information people get in 25 minutes on one of these calls than most people get from their doctor in a lifetime.

And so, if you can make the time to tune into these every week, please do so.

We have it on a podcast, we take these recordings, we put them on YouTube.
If you need that information, send me a DM and ask me for it, because we want you to have access to all the tools and resources, and you can get that from me anytime.

Connor Turner:
You mentioned asking your doctor about using the supplements. For using—my doctor doesn’t seem to believe supplements help because he always seems to push pharma drugs...

Josh Dech:
I am legally obligated to tell you to talk to your doctor.
I cannot legally use the words cure, treat, or heal in the context of what I do.

Most doctors disagree with what we do, even though their patients come back to them and they’re completely reversed.
They go through their CT scans, their colonoscopies, their scopes—and there’s no signs of disease.

Great example—I talk about all the time because we shared his story on international TV—was Louie.
Louie went through 17, 18 years dealing with bowel disease.
Like, on his deathbed, planned his funeral several times, his wife and his family were in the hospital praying at the foot of his bed.

And he is now 2 years completely symptom- and pain-free, medication-free, he’s doing amazing.
He just came back from Greece—traveling, eating, drinking, living his life normally.

Because we found the root cause, pulled it out, and his body began healing itself.

Most doctors disagree with us, but we disagree with their methods, because their patients are sick and our clients are not.

And so—I’m legally obligated to say “ask your doctor,” but I’d rather not have to.

Sandra:
Can you take boswellia and turmeric together?

Josh Dech:
Theoretically, Sandra, yes—you can take all of these things together.

What we have to keep in mind is that pharmaceutical drugs—if you’re on two or more pharmaceutical drugs, there is a 100% chance—maybe it’s three or more pharmaceuticals—there’s a 100% chance of having some kind of cross interaction between them. Whether it’s for good or for worse—most often worse.

In the case of plants, it’s far fewer and far in between.

Now—I’m not an herbalist, you could always look it up. But using these things in combination—we use dozens of supplements for clients, and we have never seen an interaction with them that’s been a problem ever at all, provided their body is able to handle whatever intervention we’re doing.

Some people—it’s like, “Well here’s three drainage supplements.” That’s too much drainage for them.
And that’s the problem—not the herbs mixing, but it’s too much for their body to handle in its current state.

And so herbs are typically considered very safe to add together.

The ones we have to watch are how long we utilize them for. Because in those instances—things like wormwood, another antimicrobial, antifungal, or chemical antifungal herb—that’s wormwood.

But it’s been shown over long periods of time—say, I think more than 60 or 90 days—to cause problems with your kidneys or your liver.
And it’s cautioned in pregnancy, as are many herbs.

And that’s the only thing to watch for—but generally, they’re considered very, very safe.

Carrie:
In reference to drainage, what are your thoughts on lymphatic massage?

Josh Dech:
I think this can be amazing.

I did an episode recently on drainage as well—but I’ll tap into this one quickly.
Drainage is how all things exit the body or move around the body—and they all work together.

So for example—if you’re going in for lymphatic massage—it’s very gentle. Your lymphs are just under the surface.

I often recommend people with drainage issues can do what’s coined—there’s a YouTube video called “The Big Six”.
It’s some lymphatic guy who created it—I forget his name—but it’s a great simple thing you can look up on YouTube.

He goes through six lymphatic spots:

• The neck
• The collarbones
• The pecs
• The belly
• The hips
• Behind the knees

And it’s just 10 rubs and then 10 taps, and I do that every morning for myself.

So lymphatic can be really great, but remember—your entire drainage systems work together.
They’re all together.

So if your liver’s jacked up, your kidneys are jacked up, your gut’s a big mess—you may need other work before going and pushing things around through your lymphatic system.

Because it moves from your lymphs, it goes into other drainage pathways, which are already full—can cause more issues.

And so everything has to be very individualized to the person.
In general—I like lymphatic massage or self-lymphatic drainage—but we do need to be careful, depending on what stage of the process you’re at.

Ann Marie:
Wait... the CDC says IBD is not autoimmune?

Josh Dech:
Crohn’s is, specifically—they have now classified IBD, inflammatory bowel disease, as being immune-mediated.

Which means your immune system is reacting.
Like, I’m not sure their interpretation, but I’ve understood immune-mediated—it’s like if you fall and puncture your hand with a little piece of metal and it gets infected, that’s an immune-mediated response.

Your immune system is the inflammatory response—that is literally why you become inflamed, because your immune system is doing work.
That’s the only reason you become inflamed.

So what happens then—if we say it’s now an immune-mediated response, it means your immune system is contributing.

Now there’s factors to look at:

• Is your immune system overworking for a reason?
• Has it been working for a long time and now it’s overclocked?
• Or do you truly have antibodies?

Only 40 to 60% of cases actually detect antibodies in IBD—either Crohn’s and/or colitis.
40 to 60%.

But even the medications they use that treat IBD—so all your Stellaras and Humiras and all these things—even NSAIDs like ibuprofen can produce the exact same antibodies.

So I don’t know how accurate that data actually is when we consider the factors that can also create the same thing they’re measuring and blaming for the cause.

But yes—they’ve now recently classified it as not autoimmune, which is very exciting because maybe one day the Western world will catch up.

But the truth is—gut health and gut disease is an $800 billion a year industry in the United States.

And the pharmaceutical companies—their responsibility is to their shareholders, not to their patients.

They’ve said that.
 Martin Shkreli was voted the most hated man in America. He was basically the hitman, the fall guy for Big Pharma.
He showed up in court and showed his face and the world hated him—but he had said:

“We have a responsibility to our shareholders. We’re in the business of making money—not in the business of curing people.”

Their words.

And so when people come to me and go,
 “I don’t trust you. You’re here to make money.”

I’m like—what do you think Big Pharma’s doing?

What do you think they’re doing with your $220,000 a month of medication?

For just a couple hundred dollars a month, you can get yourself fixed—like that.
That’s the difference.

And that’s where I get really frustrated with the system, because we’re kind of conditioned to listen to the people who are literal decades behind instead.

But there are things my naturopath told me back in the 90s when I was a little kid, like:
“Aluminum antiperspirant deodorants are bad for you.”
“Aluminum is a heavy metal—keep it out of the body.”

In the last 10 years, it’s been coming around.
They’re 20 years late to the party—by now, most people have Alzheimer’s from it, right?

So—I have very little faith in the pharmaceutical industry, in the Western medical system.
It’s just a total crapshoot.

Connor:
Do you have any supplements or something that helps with sleeping at night?
As of right now I’m using the restroom a bunch in the morning, noon, and night, and it’s keeping me up about every hour or two at night, so I’m not getting much sleep.

Josh Dech:
This is tough.
This is where your body is triggering a sensation of urgency, and what’s happening is your bowels are moving.
Your body says, “It’s time to go.”
So it wakes you up.

It’s like having to pee. It’s that—or you pee in bed or you shit your pants, right?

It’s your body—as a trained adult, will go to the bathroom.
A baby doesn’t have the training—they’ll mess in their diaper or mess the bed.
That’s really the difference.

So, unfortunately—you can take drugs to make yourself sleep and sedate yourself, but it might bypass that feedback, and it may or may not keep you from messing the bed.
You might mess the bed. It’s hard to say.

Ultimately—our goal is to remove the reason why you’re having so much urgency.
Give your body the relief it needs, and that’s how we start to get these things to reverse themselves.
It’s not so much about a supplement.

On the other hand—you could try something to slow you down.
I’m not a fan of Imodium and over-the-counter stuff, but maybe something like slippery elm could help add some bulk and decrease that urgency you feel.

Maybe.

But again—I want to reiterate:
 Root cause, root cause, root cause.
All these things I talked about today are temporary relief measures.
They’re not root cause focused.

Ann Marie:
If my daughter’s doctor wants scopes done to see if Humira is working, should that be done after your program?
And how would a doctor know if the body actually healed, or if Humira gets credit for working?

Josh Dech:
Great question.

This is where we have to look.

Some people—they’re on medications, and they’re still symptomatic.
They’re taking the drugs, and they’re having symptoms still.

So they go through our program—they’re off supplements, or sorry, they’re going through the program, and they’re now symptom-free and on medication.

We can say, “Hey, maybe it’s time to talk about reducing the frequency of injection or the amount of the dose.”
And we can see, “Okay, now it’s really working.”

Some people—they’ll credit it to Humira.
If you come off Humira and you’re still having problems, then maybe you need to keep on top of your medication.

We have people coming in all the time who are:

• Actively on medication
• Trying to avoid medication
• Taking supplements
• Who have just come off medication
• Who are on and off of it

Everyone’s different.

Medication is a non-factor in getting involved in the program.
You’re either in or you’re out, and we can help you wherever you’re at.

Josh Dech:
So guys—that’s all we got for you for tonight.

So glad you came out—thank you for being here.

If you need help, if you’ve been on the fence, if you’ve been watching this for a long time and you’re ready to move in—just don’t wait.

The biggest regret we have from people coming in is just not moving sooner.

Comment the word “solution”—we can have that conversation with you about what it looks like, and what kind of help you can get.

If you’re here listening on the podcast or watching the YouTube, check the links below on how to get help.

Until next time guys—I’ll see you all next week.
Thanks so much for coming.

Narrator Voice:
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