Dr. Will Bulsiewicz on Healing Your Gut, Reducing Inflammation and Improving Health
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Inflammation is at the center of many of today's most common chronic diseases — but what if the real starting point isn't where most people think?
In this episode of The Exam Room Podcast, host Chuck Carroll is joined by gastroenterologist and best-selling author Dr. Will Bulsiewicz for a wide-ranging and deeply human conversation about gut health, chronic inflammation, and the hidden role that stress, loneliness, and modern lifestyle play in making us sick.
Drawing from his new book Plant-Powered Plus, Dr. Bulsiewicz explains why the gut is a central command center for the immune system and the brain, and how dysfunction in the microbiome can drive everything from digestive distress to depression, anxiety, and long-term disease. He also opens up about his own personal health journey — including burnout, weight gain, and metabolic illness — and how healing his gut transformed both his life and his medical practice.
This episode goes beyond food to explore the science of the brain-gut-immune connection, the impact of chronic stress and isolation on inflammation, and why true healing requires more than just changing what's on your plate. If you've ever felt successful on the outside but unwell on the inside, this conversation offers clarity, compassion, and hope.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. |
| 0:05.2 | I was not in a good place. |
| 0:07.5 | I was struggling with my own health and I was 50 pounds overweight. |
| 0:12.3 | I was depressed, anxious, tremendously low self-esteem. |
| 0:17.4 | I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. |
| 0:20.3 | And so I was in a dark place. |
| 0:22.6 | And in that moment, I'm a celebrated medical doctor. |
| 0:26.6 | I graduated number one at Northwestern my residency program. |
| 0:30.6 | I was the chief medical resident, yet I was struggling and suffering. |
| 0:34.6 | And I didn't actually want my medicine. I didn't want my own medicine, the things that I was taught and suffering. And I didn't actually want my medicine. |
| 0:38.6 | I didn't want my own medicine, the things that I was taught to do at these great institutions. |
| 0:43.1 | Because what that would have meant is, okay, here's four or five diagnoses and here's a different |
| 0:47.4 | drug for every single one of them. |
| 0:49.0 | I didn't want that. |
| 0:50.0 | I wanted something that would actually address, why am I unwell? |
| 0:53.0 | Why am I metabolically unbalanced and having |
| 0:55.4 | these mood issues? Where did that come from? And can I fix that? And so ultimately, it was |
| 1:02.6 | addressing those specific issues that allowed me to get well in my own life. And as a medical |
| 1:09.4 | doctor who cares deeply about the work that I do, and my |
| 1:14.6 | mission and purpose is to try to improve the lives of people using my education, my skills, |
| 1:20.6 | once you have that happen in your own life, then you feel an obligation. I need to extend this to my patients because this can help them too. |
| 1:30.8 | And so my darkest moment became actually my greatest blessing in a way. |
... |
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