Habits and Hustle
Episode 413: Dr. Alejandro Junger: The Gut's Impact on Depression, Skin and Allergies + a Gut Repair Program
Tue, 07 Jan 2025
Do you struggle with chronic health problems like depression, allergies, or skin issues that just won't go away no matter what you try? According to Dr. Alejandro Junger, a renowned cardiologist and functional medicine practitioner, the root cause of these persistent ailments might be right under your nose - in your gut. In this Habits and Hustle podcast episode, I am joined by Dr. Junger as he shares his personal journey from struggling with debilitating depression and allergies to discovering the power of gut healing. He explains that a staggering 99% of chronic diseases are either directly caused by or related to gut health issues. We discuss the science behind how a "leaky gut" can wreak havoc on your entire system, leading to a host of seemingly unrelated symptoms. We also dive into practical tips on how to repair your gut through his innovative Clean Program, which has helped countless people around the world reclaim their health and vitality. Dr. Alejandro Junger is a Cardiologist and New York Times best-selling author. After graduating from Medical School in Uruguay, he moved to New York City to begin postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at NYU and Lenox Hill Hospital. The significant shift in diet and lifestyle soon manifested as symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, allergies, and depression. Becoming a patient within the healthcare system incentivized to treat symptoms vs root cause emerged as a startling experience that catalyzed his quest for an alternative solution. What We Discuss: (01:00) The King of Gut Health (04:15) The Impact of Modern Lifestyle (18:40) Path to Enlightenment Through Spiritual Journey (28:05) Awakening Through Spiritual Experience (33:10) Holistic Approach to Health and Healing (41:29) Functional Medicine Systems and Integrity (55:56) Healing Chronic Illness Through Gut Repair (01:08:46) Healing Gut Repair Program Implementation (01:19:32) Healing Gut Repair Program Discussion (01:30:09) Healing SIBO With Family Constellations (01:37:02) Seeking Healing Beyond Traditional Methods (01:42:14) Clean Program …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Dr. Alejandro Junger: Website: https://www.cleanprogram.com/ Instagram: @cleanprogram @dralejandropjunger
Chapter 1: What is the gut's impact on chronic health issues?
Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the podcast. And today we have one of my friends who just so happens to be one of the smartest doctors I know. And he is here visiting from very far away. He lives all over the world. The last couple of years, doctor, I always can't pronounce. Again, you just told me how to actually say your last name.
Junger.
Dr. Junger. By the way, guys, I have the guy who is probably one of the smartest guys when it comes to gut health. He's the king of gut health. His program is called The Clean Program. We'll get into that. But I was saying that he travels everywhere, he lives everywhere, and he's in Los Angeles only for a very short time. And so I was fortunate enough to spend time with you.
So thank you for being on the show.
Well, I came too late to be on the show.
Well, that makes me feel really nice and that's very flattering. And I don't believe you. I bet you came here for bigger and better, not better shows, but bigger shows possibly.
I don't know about better or bigger.
I mean, not better, maybe slightly bigger, but nevertheless, I'm so happy to have you. On the podcast, you know what we do every time we have a guest? Just to make sure we are very focused and super alert, we take these magic mind shots. And the ingredients are very clean. They're exceptionally good. There's everything from ashwagandha. It's a neurotropic. It's very, very good. It has ashwagandha.
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Chapter 2: How did Dr. Junger's journey to gut health begin?
And then I started getting depressed and I started getting really depressed. So I couldn't take it anymore. I took three days off. And because I was working at Lenox Hill Hospital at that time, I was almost a cardiologist, I knew everybody. So I knew the head of psychiatry. I knew the head of gastroenterology. I knew the head of allergies. So I went to all of them for consultations.
And I ended up with three diagnoses, severe allergies, severe irritable bowel syndrome, and severe depression. And I ended up with seven prescription medications. Now, I get home from my home, my studio apartment that belonged to a building that belonged to the hospital, right, for the residents and fellows. And I put the prescriptions on a little desk that I had.
And I said, I know because I'm already a doctor and I'm already trained. And I know that these chemicals... are not going to heal me. They're not going to correct the problem. They're just going to force certain chemistry in my body that's going to suppress symptoms. But it's not going to correct anything, right?
Not only that, but the suppression of symptoms sometimes comes with side effects that turn into other symptoms. So I knew all of this. But at that point, at that moment, I had the aha moment that I said, this is not what I want for me. And if I don't want this for me, this is not what I want for my patients. My dream was to help people heal.
And what I ended up doing is a prescription writing machine. You know, you have five, 10 minutes to see a patient, you end up writing a prescription just in case. I don't know if you know this, but many times doctors put patients on medications to avoid a lawsuit. Yeah.
If something happened and you didn't put him on the medication, it's better to put him on a medication, even if it has side effects, but you can defend yourself. In our training, they used to tell us, imagine that when you write your progress notes, imagine you're in court and there's a jury and there's a judge.
So you write your progress note in that way, that if something happens, you covered all your... Right, so they're covering your own ass, which is the protocol, because especially in the U.S., you can get sued for anything and everything. Yes.
So this was the world that I ended up in and that made me sick. And I said, nah, I'm going to find my own way. So this was three months before I graduated. I graduated as a cardiologist and I started looking for solutions for my problems. My biggest problem at the time was that I was severely depressed. I was actually thinking of... Killing myself.
And the only reason I didn't even start thinking of the way to do it is because I knew that I would destroy my parents. And as a good Jewish boy, Jewish mama, you know.
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Chapter 3: What is the Clean Program and how does it work?
I was the happiest kid on the planet. I was deeply loved by my parents, my sisters. By your family. We had a big, beautiful community. It was like the perfect life.
So would you say that the system, the food system here, the health system here is so damaged and so detrimental to your health that it slowly deteriorated, not just your physical health, but your mental health?
Well, that's your conclusion. I'm just telling you my story.
But as a doctor who sees and has had experience, would you say that was not just your experience, but would you say that that would be your opinion? That's what's happening to people all the time. And people are not putting two and two together. So they're using these other, you know, rationales for why they're sick.
I don't fully understand the question, but there is a problem with medicine these days and with the medical system and with the medical business, you know, because it is... It's a business.
It's a business. Well, wait, wait. I'm going to explain the question. My question is, a lot of times when people are sick or they're... they have a mental health issue, depression, anxiety, they think, oh, it's because I'm working too much. Or, oh no, it's because I have this, you know, this circumstantial, it's a circumstantial reason.
But would you say that because of the way we live as a society with the processed food and the drugs and all the other things, that it's a slowly, it's killing us mentally, physically, and we're not even conscious of that?
Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. We are creatures of this planet, like all other creatures of this planet, right? And if you look at all other creatures of this planet, except the ones that we domesticated and make live with us, you look at that, you don't see creatures, animals in the wild, in their natural environment with depression or autoimmune diseases or diabetes.
There's no monkeys with cancer, right? There may be, but it's a rare thing, you know? Right. They live, they reproduce, they eat, when they find food, they fast when they don't, and then they die. Either an animal kills them and eats them, or they're old, or it's an accident of nature. But we have taken ourselves and put ourselves in this situation.
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Chapter 4: What role does functional medicine play in healing?
Chapter 5: How do modern lifestyle choices affect gut health?
Yes. I was born in Uruguay, in South America. And when I was born, there were not even supermarkets there. We used to go with my dad to the farmer's market and we'd buy and choose our fruit. And we knew the guy that sold us the meat. And so life was very simple at the time when I was born. Later on, it became very Americanized.
But meals were cooked from scratch at my mother's kitchen, and we ate all together as a family, and life was simple.
Yeah.
And healthy by default. Once I went to medical school and graduated from medical school, I went to New York, I moved to New York to do my postgraduate training. So I started with three years of internal medicine at NYU Downtown Hospital, and then three years of cardiovascular diseases to become a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
The drastic change of lifestyle from moving from a simple place like Uruguay, where life was simple and healthy by default, to a fast-paced city like New York, living in hospitals, a lot of time in the emergency room, three days in a row being on call, eating garbage, never eating home-cooked meals. I remember going to the supermarket and looking at
The boxes and the smells and the fact that you got this colorful box and then you put it in the microwave and in five minutes you had something that looked like a meal that my mother would cook, you know, like a piece of meat or chicken with mashed potatoes. And it looked like it, right? But it wasn't really. Right.
It looked like it is the key word, right?
I started eating from the hospital cafeteria, which now I know it's... I don't know that it's consciously designed, but it is designed to make people sick and as is hospital food for the patients. And when I was on call at night, there were vending machines. And I used to think, oh my God, these Americans, they figure it out. It's amazing.
I was like an aboriginal in a supermarket, like discovering this new world. I was excited and admiring all this. But then I started eating these things and I started getting sick. I started gaining weight. I started having seasonal allergies that then became a year-round ordeal. Then I started having digestive problems, you know, bad digestion, bloating and pains and constipation, diarrhea.
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Chapter 6: Can meditation and spirituality enhance health?
And I ended up with three diagnoses, severe allergies, severe irritable bowel syndrome, and severe depression. And I ended up with seven prescription medications. Now, I get home from my home, my studio apartment that belonged to a building that belonged to the hospital, right, for the residents and fellows. And I put the prescriptions on a little desk that I had.
And I said, I know because I'm already a doctor and I'm already trained. And I know that these chemicals... are not going to heal me. They're not going to correct the problem. They're just going to force certain chemistry in my body that's going to suppress symptoms. But it's not going to correct anything, right?
Not only that, but the suppression of symptoms sometimes comes with side effects that turn into other symptoms. So I knew all of this. But at that point, at that moment, I had the aha moment that I said, this is not what I want for me. And if I don't want this for me, this is not what I want for my patients. My dream was to help people heal.
And what I ended up doing is a prescription writing machine. You know, you have five, 10 minutes to see a patient, you end up writing a prescription just in case. I don't know if you know this, but many times doctors put patients on medications to avoid a lawsuit. Yeah.
If something happened and you didn't put him on the medication, it's better to put him on a medication, even if it has side effects, but you can defend yourself. In our training, they used to tell us, imagine that when you write your progress notes, imagine you're in court and there's a jury and there's a judge.
So you write your progress note in that way, that if something happens, you covered all your... Right, so they're covering your own ass, which is the protocol, because especially in the U.S., you can get sued for anything and everything. Yes.
So this was the world that I ended up in and that made me sick. And I said, nah, I'm going to find my own way. So this was three months before I graduated. I graduated as a cardiologist and I started looking for solutions for my problems. My biggest problem at the time was that I was severely depressed. I was actually thinking of... Killing myself.
And the only reason I didn't even start thinking of the way to do it is because I knew that I would destroy my parents. And as a good Jewish boy, Jewish mama, you know.
You can't do that to your mom.
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Chapter 7: What is the relationship between diet and mental health?
Chapter 8: How can we bridge the gap between traditional and functional medicine?
orators or the best media spokespeople are typically the ones that I see who are actually the most knowledgeable, have the most integrity, who I'd like to get my information from.
By the way. By the way, you're one of them. These help me really focus. It did?
It did. Good. Well, this is a good example, right? Because like, yeah, like everybody needs to make money and have brands and sponsors who help them, right? But you have to be discerning who you work with, who your products are, who you're listening to. Like you're saying yourself, like, well, I have my clean program.
Yes.
Yeah, but like I vetted you.
I know you. I like you. I tell you one way in which I myself distinguish myself between who is just doing it for business and maybe this is not humble of me to say, right, but my company and my program is a result of my own problems, a solution searched for. I was searching for a solution for my own problems when I found the solution, which I was coming into, I spent the time in India.
Right, right, right. We got sidetracked. With all the meditation and the vegetarian food and all this. So my symptoms got a little better, right? But when I finished my time in India, I had to come back and go work. So I started working in a hospital again. And again, seven minutes per patient, eating in a hospital cafeteria, running, being on call. Again, my symptoms doubled, doubled down.
I was more depressed and more allergic. And until one day, some guy that I knew, I had seen 10 days before, knocks on my door. He was from LA, a producer, always very edgy and red in the face from alcohol and coffee. And when I opened the door, he came to visit me and I was like, oh my God, what happened to you? He was like 10 kilos less. His skin looked amazing. His eyes were white.
And he didn't have the redness that characterized him. I said, what happened to you? Did you get plastic surgery? And he said, no, no, no. I come from a detox center. I said, detox? I didn't know that you were on drugs. He said, no, no, no, no, that kind of detox. He said, come, come, I'll show you. And he took me to...
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