All right.
This is super exciting. We have the 22nd episode of the gut check project. And, unfortunately, my co host Eric Rieger is actually at a conference right now. But we have a huge upgrade. We have Dr. Marisol naturopathic doctor, who is now my co host, and my lead guest both, which is awesome. So, this is going to be a super super, super fun show because what we have going on is Dr. Marisol. We're going to talk about pooping. We're going to talk about castor oil. We're gonna talk about bowel habits. I'm just a simple country, butt doctor, she's a brilliant naturopath. So we're going to welcome Dr. Marisol.
Oh you’re awesome. Ken thanks so much. You're so so so so humble. It's amazing but I have to say you're pretty incredible gi specialist honestly.
That is thank you very much but I'm just I'm just thrilled to actually have a different co host so we're gonna let we're just gonna bounce off each other we're gonna let and let everything roll here.
You're just happy it’s a cuter co-host.
Eric’s extremely attractive. If he'd shave i think that i think we'd have a more of a connection but he just won't do that.
I know. I know he could do that whole Mr. America contest. I'm telling you. I keep telling him to go in it. I love that Dallas accent.
Before we even jump in I just want to ask one one question
Yeah.
How you pooping?
How am i pooping? I'm pooping like a champ. Actually, I'm pooping like a queen. Right?
So sure her moniker is that she is the queen of Thrones which is why, now it's not just because you're here. That's actually how I introduce everyone, as I just asked him how you pooping?
I love it.
And I'll go to family reunions and just walk up and say hey, how you pooping?
You know, that is the most important question that we should be asking people, honestly, or at least asking ourselves every day, right? How am I pooping? Because it's so important. It's like your number, you know, they get I always say, you know, poor poor poo, you know, it has a bad job where it you know, got the number two label right? Like, why is it not the number one like, in my opinion, poo is number one, not number two, the most important thing that comes out of your body
And you know, this was completely planned, but this is Episode two two and we've got the queen of number two.
I love it.
This is awesome.
You know, synchronicity at its best. I'm telling ya. Yeah, that's an important question. Honestly. That's what that's what I've been asking myself for the past, gosh, 40 years of my life. Right?
So you did this in utero? You're asking questions.
Oh, you're so sweet. No, no, I'm definitely over forty. But because I poop well, I do look younger and better and I feel better than I did otherwise. Right? And when I was younger I really suffered with digestive problems like constipation. My mother was constipated constantly. You know, my father had IBS it was we were just a bunch of problems in the butt. Tt was just gosh, everyone always a bathroom occupied. We only had one bathroom in those days.
At home was in Ontario Canada?
Yeah, Ontario, Canada, right back up northern Canada. So we were isolated in the very north in the mining towns.
Oh, my goodness.
Very interesting experience growing up there.
Lots of family members coming out of the bathroom going, Oh, that didn't go well ay?
That's right. So for us, you know, that conversation was very, very open. We would talk about it at the kitchen table, we would talk about it everywhere. And then I would remember going to a friend's house. And then I started talking about it or say something to a friend of mine and they'd be like, Oh my God, you're so weird. Why are you talking about poo? And I'm like, I don't know it's interesting, and it's what we talked about. Right? There was a common converstation at our home. It was really it was really interesting. And I keep on you know, what really changed my life though was Oprah and Dr. Oz. Ironically, the the that show they opened, I think Dr. Oz was just going on The Oprah show for a couple of episodes. And he went on in one of his first episodes. And what he did was a huge explanation about what you're poo is saying about you. And that day when I watched that episode, something in my heart lit up. And I was just looking at him like a child in the candy store, like I just was amazed by what he was talking about, and how there was actually things you could find out about your body from your poop, and it just set me on this trajectory on this pathway to really always constantly be looking and investigating my poo and because I suffered with IBS, with so much digestive problems up until I was in my 30s when I finally you know, figured out my formula to fix it. I was looking and learning from my poo, so it was just it's just It's been a really cool ride to get me to becoming the queen of the thrones and what I'm doing now. And the ride on the throne that is.
Let me ask you, so when you watch this episode with Dr. Oz, were you a naturopathic doctor at the time?
No. Oh my gosh, this is talk to that we're talking like 19 I think it could be like 1992 maybe earlier like I was around 11. It was it was early on in my life. Like it was a point, a foundational point in my life where that something just inside me clicked. It was like, I want to talk about poop that seems really important to me.
What were you doing at that time?
So at that time, I was a young young kid I was in dancing in my dreams were to become a Liza Minnelli and a doctor. I wanted to be both of those things. My Liza Minnelli dreams got crushed by a dance teacher who said I didn't fit quite in.
Uh huh.
Right? Which you know was now I look at that as the best gift I could have given been given in my lifetime. Because if I fit in, I would not be here talking about poo, let's face it because it was taboo. Righ?t And so what I wanted to go into was, was being a doctor.
Really?
Yeah, yeah.
And so that was, was that the motive to get you to start studying naturopathic medicine?
100% Oh, because I suffered my entire life suffering suffering and you know, your purpose is within your pain 100% of the time, when you you know, you're dealing with something, you're trying to figure out how to make it better. And you and like someone like me, like I I, I'm always looking how to advanced, how to be better, how to improve, and I couldn't get this part of my life improved, because IBS can be a huge beast, you know, because it's not just only what's going on in the digestive tract it's so much more. So I really needed to look at all those things, and I needed I think I needed to take it into my own hands and take it and that's why that's what eventually led me into naturopathic school.
Oh, that's awesome.
So I'm really blessed.
I mean, I think that one of the most common things is that when people in other fields of medicine and I think there's so many naturopathic doctors that really focused on the gut because they realize how important it is. Yeah, I mean, I'm a little bit bias because I'm a gastroenterologist. I say that all health begins and ends in the gut.
But it really is because what I see in my clinic and I'm sure it's exactly what you see, you can't get away from it. If you have a sore knee, you quit running. You go to an orthopedic, whatever, you get a surgery, something like that. But when you have intestinal issues, it's always there. So.
Yeah.
Always. Yeah, it's always there and it permeates your entire life. You're constantly dealing with it constantly thinking about it. Like I'm still in the habit ...