This episode follows on from my earlier chat with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (@theguthealthmd on Instagram), a gastroenterologist and doctor of internal medicine. Dr B. and I take a deeper dive into the importance of gut health and the gut microbiome. We discuss the microbiome's influence on weight loss and obesity and the importance of diet (in particular plants) in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome and supporting weight loss. We then look at the impact of the use of antibiotics (short term and long term) on gut health and discuss the effect of a plant-based diet, prebiotics and probiotics in situations where the gut microbiome has been damaged (e.g. through unavoidable antibiotic use). Finally, we answer questions from you, the listeners, about the link between gut health and anxiety (and other neurological conditions such as ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and autism) and the effect of probiotics, the research behind them and how to select one if needed. We also answer questions about the effects of prebiotics, water kefir, milk kefir and kombucha (i.e. fermented foods) on gut health, how a diverse plant based diet improves gut health and whether you can reverse/heal IBS once you have it. We respond to questions about the importance of diet for expecting and new mothers, other ways to improve gut health beyond diet (e.g. intermittent fasting or time restricted eating) and the impact of dairy on your gut health. Finally, Dr B gives you his top 3 suggestions to improve not only gut health, but overall health as well. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a positive rating or review in the purple Apple Podcast app (in the rating & reviews section underneath the episode lists). This really helps my podcast get prioritised by Apple and helps me disseminate evidence based information to the people that need it the most!