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EP628: Jen Yundt Coles - The Little Known Secret To Optimizing Your Health After 50!
113 Plays21 days ago
“I find that my clients tend to be entrepreneurial, driven, and passionate individuals. Sometimes, what got them to where they are is also what’s holding them back.”
In this enlightening episode, host Nicky Billou sits down with functional medicine practitioner and SIBO specialist, Jen Yundt Coles, to discuss the profound connection between gut health and overall well-being. Jen shares her personal journey from struggling with digestive issues to becoming a leading voice in addressing Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and other chronic digestive challenges. With her trademark blend of compassion and expertise, Jen dives into the root causes of SIBO, the importance of individualized nutrition, and the role of mindset in achieving sustainable health.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a health practitioner, or someone navigating your own health journey, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you take control of your wellness.
About Our Guest: Jen Yundt Coles
Jen Yundt Coles is a certified functional medicine practitioner and coach specializing in Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and chronic digestive issues. Driven by her own health challenges, Jen’s mission is to empower individuals and practitioners to adopt a more holistic, personalized approach to gut health. Through her practice, The SIBO Coach, Jen combines evidence-based strategies with a deep understanding of the mind-gut connection to help clients heal and thrive. She also mentors other practitioners, sharing her expertise to amplify the impact of functional medicine.
Learn more about Jen’s work at www.thesibocoach.com.
Expert Action Steps:
Jen shares her top three strategies for fostering a healthier gut and balanced life:
1. Give Yourself Permission to Rest:
Stress impairs digestion and nutrient absorption. Prioritize downtime to allow your body to heal.
2. Eat the Rainbow:
Focus on a diverse range of colorful, nutrient-dense foods to support your microbiome and overall health.
3. Embrace Your Individuality and Creativity:
Tune into what your unique body needs instead of adhering to rigid diets or one-size-fits-all health advice.
Connect with Jen Yundt Coles:
• Website: www.thesibocoach.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Explore free resources, take the “Do I Have SIBO?” quiz, and learn about her practitioner mentorship programs.
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:03
Speaker
A good majority of my clients right now come to me via referrals. So it's either someone they knew or a family member or another practitioner referred them to me. I've been on the podcast circuit for a little while. So, you know, the word gets out, social media and things like that, getting leads from there. But I would mostly say it's podcasts, people listening and hearing, oh yeah, that totally sounds like something I'm dealing with. Let me check this out.
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nicky Baloo. And boy, do we have an exciting guest for you today. She is another one of our emerging thought leaders. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only, the legendary Jen Yount Coles.
Jen's Journey to Functional Medicine
00:01:21
Speaker
Welcome to the show, Jen. Yay. Hooray. Thank you so much. That was an awesome introduction. I appreciate that. You bet.
00:01:29
Speaker
So Jen, tell us your backstory. How'd you get to be the great Jen Yunt Coles? Yeah, yeah. So here I am. You know, it's been a journey. I am currently a functional medicine practitioner. um And I help my clients with SIBO, which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
00:01:51
Speaker
and other digestive issues. And I got here, like many of us in the functional medicine world, as someone who was suffering from my own health issues. So lifelong journey of digestive distress um through childhood teenage years as well. And um once I got married, I started having that whole thing where I didn't want to use the bathroom while my husband was in the house. It caused all kinds of problems for me, right? And then child-rearing gears, hormones changing, all the things that could possibly land on one human being, I think, did land on me at one point. And um I've always had this drive and interest in alternative health and learning more about different modalities of how to support your body in different ways.
00:02:40
Speaker
And eventually um after having broken heart syndrome, because my body was so completely stressed out ah from all the symptoms and my go-go-getter lifestyle, um I'm kind of ah what I like to call a recovering perfectionist. um My body was finally done. And so that was a real turning point for me. And that was my first taste of functional medicine at that point. I sought out a different type of practitioner.
00:03:08
Speaker
um And she was the one that actually said, hey, have you ever heard of SIBO? Maybe we should test you for that because I was having these chronic um digestive issues. And lo and behold, it came back positive and led me down that whole rabbit hole. And at the time, um I was just closing my gluten-free baking company and starting to go back to school for health coaching because I thought in my mind, kind of naively, oh, I'm going to go to health coaching school and figure out how to you know fix myself.
SIBO Specialization and Challenges
00:03:40
Speaker
And once I kind of dove into that and started having clients, I realized that I needed way more information and I wanted the research and the resources. And that's kind of how my brain works. I like to dive into that kind of stuff. And actually, every Friday, I don't see clients because I love researching so much. That's part of what I love. um And eventually, ah put myself through functional medicine school. And I have had some amazing mentors over the years, so I don't take credit for everything. um And I'm so grateful for all of that. But I think that that has been part of how and why I got to where I am now. So I think, in a nutshell, that's how I am. Jenniec Cole is the SIBO coach at this point.
00:04:26
Speaker
So what is SIBO? Yeah, so it stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And the important thing to understand is that we have different microbiomes all over in our body. And I don't think that that was understood before, but it's becoming more and more understood in the conventional medicine world. And we have fermentation and all of that going on in the large colon, lots of bacteria, we should have a nice diverse microbiome there. But our small intestine is more for
00:05:01
Speaker
synthesizing, assimilating nutrients from our food and not really a place for fermentation and all of that to go on. So when we do have some sort of bacterial overgrowth or imbalance in the small intestine, I mean, mostly it's supposed to be, I mean, not sterile, but it's definitely not like the large intestine.
00:05:21
Speaker
um This can cause all kinds of havoc. um It causes leaky gut, wear and tear on the intestinal lining, nutrient deficiencies, and all sorts of wicked um chronic type of symptoms. They're not only digestive, which might include things like bloating and um gas and you know changes in bowel, diarrhea, constipation, maybe both. But it can also cause things like body pain syndromes,
00:05:51
Speaker
ah brain fog, cognitive impairment, um poor sleep. I mean, the list goes on and on. Rashes, um all sorts of things that can come about that aren't even related to what you would think is going on in your gut. So it's really important to address if you feel like this may be something present you know in your current health situation. So what causes this?
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah, so there's quite a few root causes for SIBO. And one that is talked about the most is about a food poisoning. So if you were traveling or perhaps you went to the salad bar or ate at your friend's house and then you ended up getting sick, um and then a couple months later, you end up having these chronic issues like perhaps bloating an hour or two after eating in that area below the belly button or the navel.
00:06:43
Speaker
um That's a ah tall tale, I mean, that's a telltale sign, right? And um so it's really important to kind of clue into things that may have happened even months before. um TBI, which is a really interesting one, if you've had some sort of injury to your brain, we know that the brain and the gut are very intimately connected. A round of antibiotics can shift the microbiome in the gut, surgery or an injury to the abdomen, um taking NSAIDs, birth control pills, or PPIs, which is very common in today's world as people are just pop in pills like left and right, right? And all of these things can cause an imbalance in the intestinal flora and lead to something like SIBO.
00:07:36
Speaker
Wow. You know, I'm um doing quite a bit of self-education. I'm a bit of an auto-dictat on nutritional issues. um I just did Max Lugaver's course in Peterson University on nutrition and I'm reading his book Genius Foods. I just read Dr. Casey Means' ah book um Good Energy and the emphasis that these folks put on having a healthy gut
00:08:07
Speaker
ah is startling. it's yeah I would say probably 60-70% of the focus that they have in their books and what they recommend that you know people reading their books like me do is make sure that you understand what can impact your gut and in what way, and that you eat in a way that minimizes that negative impact on your gut. So I'm always fascinated to hear from practitioners in the field like you. So maybe you can tell me, like for you and the clients that you work with, who is your ideal client? Someone who's suffering from this and may not even know it? Like help me understand that.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So when I first got started, SIBO wasn't as known, I guess, in the medical world or as it wasn't talked about much. And even to this day, honestly, you could go to a GI and they may not say that it's even a thing or want to test you for it. So I do encourage anyone who might be listening to just be your own best advocate and really just keep asking questions, right?
00:09:18
Speaker
At this point in my practice, folks that are coming to see me are people who have been around the block a few times.
Clientele and Stress Management Strategies
00:09:24
Speaker
They've been to their doctor several times. They've tried ah you know the gold standard Rifaximin prescription for SIBO. They've taken it several times. The SIBO always comes back. They don't understand why. It's becoming a chronic condition. Those are the folks that I usually see at this point.
00:09:44
Speaker
um Occasionally I'll have someone who doesn't even know about SIBO and they're just curious and they and they reach out to me maybe from a referral or something like that. um But, and I also have ah several practitioners that refer their own patients and clients over to me if it's a special case where they feel like they just need extra support. But typically I would say my clients, it's so interesting. My clients tend to be entrepreneurial, um busy corporate types, creatives. I have lots of artists, costume designers, actors, musicians.
00:10:20
Speaker
um folks who are really driven ah in their passions, caring for their families, traveling, really active types. um And I find it really interesting because, you know, sometimes as practitioners, we attract people who are like us.
00:10:38
Speaker
And, you know, this is something that I feel like that's what kind of got me into this, you know, health situation to begin with. It was the constant drive and go, go, go and perfectionism and people pleasing, and all of that and not really understanding that there needed to be more of a balance in order to really allow my body to start self healing. And that's sort of the big, I think takeaway or the big message that I try to share and empower my clients with. What would you say to someone listening to this that they could do um from a nutrition point of view to minimize the chance that they'd get something like SIBO? Yeah, you know, that's a really good question, Nikki. So it's interesting because right now in the mainstream, you'll see lots of, you know, you have to do the keto diet or you have to do the paleo diet or you definitely have to go vegan.
00:11:36
Speaker
And my message is really more about it needs to be individual. We are all so unique and we all have our own environment that we're living in and our microbiomes are different and we have different nutrient needs. So I would never suggest, oh, you need to do this one diet or that one diet as far as nutrition goes.
00:11:58
Speaker
For me, um I think it's more important to figure out what works best for your body. what is What's actually feeling good? What's giving you energy? What's allowing you to sleep at night so that you can reset? And I would say even before thinking about what kind of foods or nutrients that you need,
00:12:19
Speaker
I would think about how can I start lowering my chronic stress levels so that I can digest and absorb those nutrients that I'm taking in. Because when we are stuck in fight or flight, we don't really ah you know absorb our nutrients well. um We have impaired digestive secretions, and so that we have downstream other effects of like food fodder hanging out in the small intestines for bacteria to feed on.
00:12:49
Speaker
um And so even before thinking about which nutrients your body needs, I would be thinking about the nutrient of like more joy, more rest, more balance, um less stress, ah less people pleasing, and all of that kind of stuff that sometimes we get stuck in. Because you know what? The truth is we could eat the best diet, quote unquote, best diet, take all of our fancy vitamins,
00:13:16
Speaker
I go to yoga three times a week or whatever, um but if we're not really checking in with what's going on up here and right here, mind and heart, those things are intimately connected with what's going on in the gut and our ability to absorb those nutrients. So that's probably what I would say. Jen, you want to give us a success story of one of your clients. You don't need to violate confidentiality or mention any names, but I'd love to understand how this actually works in real life.
Success Stories and Mentorship
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah, sure. So I have a client. um She is a young 30s, very active, very social. um And she ah you know was definitely one of these sort of high achiever types, very um active and constantly you know working on projects and going out with friends and traveling.
00:14:07
Speaker
um very typical of my clientele and she came to me and she had been having this ongoing um issue with bloating after meals and chronic diarrhea. She was literally going to the bathroom 10 to 12 times a day. I don't know how she had time to do all the things that she wanted to do because she was in the bathroom all the time, but that just sounds horrible to me, right? And so I was really motivated um to be able to partner with her and help her.
00:14:35
Speaker
So one of the first conversations we had was about her workout or exercise activity level. She was doing CrossFit, um heavy weightlifting, lots of cardio, seven days a week. And she came to me not necessarily for the diarrhea, but her top concern was I want to lose a few pounds.
00:14:59
Speaker
And so what's really interesting is it's important to educate people when we're kind of inflamed and in the sick, chronic, simmering infection mode, our body holds onto weight. It's a way of feeling safe. And so lots of times after we address the microbial imbalance in the gut, the weight falls off later. But part of our conversation was,
00:15:23
Speaker
Let's try to work out how to exercise X amount of days, change the type of exercise and then balance it out with a little more meditation or yoga or Tai Chi, something that's going to increase circulation and oxygen.
00:15:41
Speaker
still give you that hit because you're being active, but it gives you a chance and your body and mind to feel like it's safe so that you can start healing. And once we kind of got through that, it was kind of a rocky road at the beginning because she didn't want to prescribe to that idea, right? She didn't want to slow down her routine. But once she did, um she reported to me a couple months later, oh my gosh, I'm almost to my my target weight.
00:16:09
Speaker
And going to the bathroom at that point after we were addressing some microbial imbalances, um she was able to ah reduce her bowel movements to one or two ah per day. So I think that it's not necessarily what's on your plate that you're eating. It's not necessarily what supplements or pharmaceuticals you're taking.
00:16:32
Speaker
And it's not necessarily, you know, um is your body able to absorb that key nutrient, but it has a lot to do with everything else. It was her environment. It was kind of stressful. It was her activity level. It was way too high for a healing journey. And it was kind of that mindset, understand that she didn't have to be stuck, that there was hope and that we just need to make a few tweaks. um And I think that that's what helped her be the most successful. Fantastic.
00:17:03
Speaker
So as an emerging thought leader, someone with a desire to make a big dent in the universe, what's the biggest
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah, wow, what a great question. You know, interestingly, over the last couple of years, I've had more and more practitioners. I have colleagues from my functional medicine world, other doctors and such coming to me, hey, can I get a consult on my client or my patient case? And I started doing that more and more and my clientele sort of turned into about 30% practitioners coming to me for help, right? wow And what I kind of realized at that point was, wow, one, I really love doing this. Part of it is the education and then empowering that practitioner to know that they can think outside of the box. They don't have to you know prescribe to this conventional medicine approach to SIBO, which I think is quite short-sighted and not comprehensive at all.
00:18:13
Speaker
And so that's kind of where I felt my superpower coming out, being able to teach, guide and inspire them to do that. And so that's actually become part of my practice now. So I have a practitioner mentorship.
00:18:28
Speaker
And so I have practitioners coming in um and they get real live case review. We talk about what's going on right on the spot. um And I find that it's really helpful for them, but it helps me feel like I'm helping more people than just the clients that I can see.
00:18:44
Speaker
And I think that's part of my mission at this point is to really rock the boat, to rebel against that conventional medicine approach to treating SIBO or addressing other chronic digestive issues. um Because like I said, I do feel it's short-sighted and it's not serving anyone at this point. The doctors are frustrated because their patients aren't getting better and the patients are frustrated because they keep relapsing. And so I find that this is a win-win if we all kind of come together and start, you know,
00:19:15
Speaker
thinking outside of the box, moving the marbles around, and coming up with different ideas um for a more holistic, comprehensive approach to addressing chronic digestive issues. I love it. I love it. So so currently, how are you attracting your ah your ideal
Future Vision and Contact Information
00:19:34
Speaker
clients?
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, so it's interesting, and it's such a blessing to me, I think. But a good majority of my clients right now come to me via referrals. So it's either someone they knew or a family member or another practitioner referred them to me. um I've been on the podcast circuit for a little while, so you know the word gets out ah doing that. And I think other than that, um you know, social media and things like that, getting leads from there. But I would mostly say it's referrals um and some podcasts, people listening and hearing. Oh, yeah, that totally sounds like something I'm dealing with. Let me check this out. Imagine it's a year from now, three years from now. Picture the world as you would ideally want it to be. What would have you crying tears of joy in terms of your practice and your impact? Of joy, yeah.
00:20:34
Speaker
Um, less grind, more joy. Um, I'm kind of coming into this myself. I just recently turned 50. And you know, they always say you kind of have a little bit of a midlife crisis. But for me, I feel like it's a huge reset and realization or reawakening. Um, you know, it's one of those things where I feel like if I could go back in time, right, things would be different. But I'm looking forward to
00:21:00
Speaker
You know, a year or three and years from now, I feel like people are going to be more open-minded, to be a little more experimental, a little more rebellious in asking questions, being more of an advocate for themselves and not settling. um There's a lot of settling, I feel like, going on and just deferring to whatever your doctor tells you to do. Obviously, I'm not giving people medical advice to do that. But what I'm saying is, is you know We get 10 minutes in the doctor's office and you have to hurry up and blurt out all your symptoms and hope that they're gonna help you and they write you a prescription and send you on your way. And it's not really the healthcare that we need. That's kind of sick care management. Yeah, the sick care management. So no it's not what I would love to see is just more of a comprehensive spaciousness. I don't know if you could call it that.
00:21:52
Speaker
um people being awakened to the idea that they have individual power when it comes to their healing and that we don't all fit in a box. We don't all fit under one protocol and really kind of internalizing that idea that we are unique human beings and we need unique healthcare.
00:22:14
Speaker
I've been taking detailed notes on what you've been saying because this is a ah topic that I personally find interesting and valuable. And i'm one of the great things about hosting so many amazing top level thought leaders is I get a bit of a coaching session from each one of them, right? So it's its a beautiful thing. yeah yeah But ah what you just said,
00:22:36
Speaker
I want to stand up and give you a standing ovation. You're bang on with all of that. Thank you. We all need to be more open-minded, more rebellious, not settle for the Western medical model, which has so many flaws in it. I'm not saying that it's all bad because there's things in it that we need. Of course. If you break a bone, the Western medical model is fantastic for that. If you're having ah emergency care, it's amazing. But things like this, ah it's limited to say the least. So good on you. So look, we, we end every episode by asking you as our guest expert to do four things. First, how do people get ahold of you? Yeah, great. So the best way to get ahold of me is my website. It's www.thecebocoach.com.
00:23:27
Speaker
There you can find many free resources. There's recipes, there's quizzes. Like, do I even have SIBO? I don't know. Let me take a quiz. um There's program information there and also information about my practitioner mentorship. So that's kind of the hub. And if someone wanted to get in contact with me personally,
00:23:46
Speaker
um They can always just email me jen at the sebo coach.com. Yeah. The other three things are, what are your top three expert action steps in bullet point form? What are your three best pieces of advice for my listener to take their health, their life, their spirit to the next level?
Closing Advice and Podcast Wrap-Up
00:24:09
Speaker
um Give yourself permission to rest, eat the rainbow,
00:24:16
Speaker
I like that. And embrace your individuality and your creativity. Oh, these are good. Well, I mean, I'm on the spot here, Nikki. So these are good. Jen, you're good. You're very good.
00:24:32
Speaker
um
00:24:34
Speaker
Jen, we're going to make sure that we put your contact info on the show notes listener. Jen Yunt-Coals is fantastic. She is brilliant. She is a thought leader. The world doesn't know about her the way they ought to yet, but hopefully this will be the start of the world getting to know who she is in a way bigger way. If you you are suffering from SIBO, or you think you might be, or someone you know might be, check out her website.
00:25:04
Speaker
And ah if you learn something today, share it with somebody else. The best way to deepen the learning for yourself is when you take what you've learned and you teach it to others. That comes from glass or choice theory. The fastest and best way to learn something is to teach it to other people. And to if you liked what we did today, give us a like rating or review. What that does is it pushes us further up the algorithm and more people that need this will see it.
00:25:33
Speaker
Jen, thanks so much for coming on the show. It was a real pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much, Nikki. It's been a pure pleasure. I appreciate you. Likewise. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. To find out more about today's amazing guests, the one and only Jen Young-Coals, go to the show notes at thethoughtleaderrevolution.com or wherever you happen to listen to this episode, be it iTunes, Spotify,
00:25:58
Speaker
Google Play, rumble, or what have you. Until next time, goodbye. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.