Interviewer: Do you see a lot of athletes with digestive problems?
Dr. Stern: I see a lot of people with digestive problems. I see a lot of athletes with digestive problems, because a lot of athletes come in here and they'll say, "Well, what am I supposed to do as an athlete? Should I do branch-chained aminos. Should I do glutamines? Should I do whey protein? How much protein should I have? How much carbohydrates should I have?" But yet very few say, "Should I do a probiotic?"
You know a lot of athletes are focused on doing these macro nutrients where they're getting all their protein, or all their carbohydrates, or all their fat, but they're not thinking about their systems and what's digesting and processing all these nutrients. So yes. I see athletes with digestive issues and it's because you very rarely if ever look at an athlete supplement website and see anything about the benefits of probiotics.
Well probiotics are critical not just for athletes, but for everybody. But especially if you're focused on being the best you can be in anything in life and you want to be optimally healthy, you need good microbiome support, and that's good bacteria and probiotics.
Interviewer: Something like short term versus long term planning like a lot of them do, right?
Dr. Stern: Not even that. Some people just dont have the knowledge. They're not thinking about it. They're thinking, "Okay. I'm getting enough protein. I'm getting enough carbohydrates. I'm getting enough fat. I'm healthy." Whereas really, even if you get that protein, are you digesting it properly? And why are you getting sick all the time? Why do you feel run down all the time?
It might just be because you've done antibiotics, your good bacteria are decreased, you're not processing the nutrients properly, you're not digesting your food properly. And so now even if you're getting the good food into your body, who's to say that you're digesting and assimilating it properly? The good bacteria are critical for that.
So just because you're putting it in your mouth doesn't mean it's getting to the cells that you need to get it to. So it's not even that they're aware of it and not thinking about it long, they're just not aware.
Interviewer: Wow.