For December, I’m sharing a couple of my favorite episodes while we take a little break to spend time with friends and family. I hope you are also able to make room for the things you love this season, you so deserve it after the year we've had.

My second favorite episode for this month is my conversation with Kiran Krishnan about the gut microbiome.

I love this episode because of Kiran’s ability to explain why the health of our gut microbiome is so important, especially in early life and its impact on mental health.

Your body’s microbiome is a complex set of systems that contribute to your health and wellbeing in innumerable ways that we have barely begun to understand.

And you have multiple microbiomes that exist in your body, from your skin to your mouth to your gut that are comprised of multiple kinds of organisms at varying levels. It’s no wonder we’ve only scratched the surface in learning about these different ecosystems.

Kiran Krishnan joins me to break down what a microbiome is, what it’s made up of, and why the microbiome in your gut is so vital to your overall physical and mental health.

Kiran Krishnan is a Research Microbiologist and has been involved in the dietary supplement and nutrition market for the past 18 years. He spent several years with hands-on R&D in the fields of molecular medicine and microbiology at the University of Iowa. He is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Microbiome Labs.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The various microbes that make up your microbiome and the different ecosystems that exist throughout your body
• How the gut microbiome connects to your brain through the enteric nervous system and vagus nerve
• The role of the gut microbiome in mental and behavioral health and how it impacts your response to stress
• The problem with most probiotics on the market today and what actually works to support your gut microbiome

Click here to read the full article as well as research links.