How Gut Bacteria Shape Your Brain, Immunity, and Mental Wellness | Dr. Sabine Hazan

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

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Summary

Is it possible that autism, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, and other major health challenges might all be related to the gut?

That’s the question Dr. Sabine Hazan, a gastroenterologist and CEO of Progenabiome, has been probing for years.

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of fecal transplants for research into the treatment of autism, and Dr. Hazan says this may open the door to real breakthroughs.

She hopes to compare the microbiomes of autistic children with their neurotypical siblings and see if fecal transplants can help treat autism. She’s already seen one remarkable case where restoring gut bacteria brought real improvements for a child with autism.

Can these findings be replicated on a larger scale?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she observed that people who experienced the worst bouts of COVID-19 seemed to have significantly lower counts of a key microbe: bifidobacteria.

“Bifidobacteria is important in absorbing sugar. It’s important in your metabolism. It’s important in your energy drive,” Dr. Hazan says.

There are trillions of microbes in the gut, and scientists are only just starting to discover how this delicate balance of microbes impacts people’s health, immunity, and mental wellness, Dr. Hazan says. There are “microbes that can kill us, but also microbes that can save us,” Dr. Hazan says.

“You will see, probably in 10 or 50 years from now, there will be a connection between cardiac disease and the microbiome. We will be possibly able to fix the heart by fixing the gut, because it all is connected,” Dr. Hazan says.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So with a fecal transplant, you're basically taking poop from one person and you're giving it to another.
0:07.0	Correct. It's a messy business.
0:09.0	Dr. Sabine Hazan is an expert in the field of gut health and microbiome research.
0:15.0	Her book, Let's Talk S-H-I-T, is an easy-to-digest explanation of the human microbiome.
0:21.6	The future is in poop. The importance of gut health, which is really your immunity is in the gut.
0:27.6	In this episode, she breaks down the FDA's recent approval of the use of fecal transplants for research into the treatment of autism.
0:36.6	It's going to be an important study to give us data
0:40.3	onto whether siblings that are neurotypical can be a good donor for the kid that's autistic.
0:49.3	We also discussed the relationship between the COVID-19 spike protein and the microbiome, how people
0:55.1	who got severe COVID lack a certain critical gut bacteria, and the need for precise microbiome
1:01.0	research to develop effective treatments.
1:03.7	If anything we've learned from COVID, is the importance of microbes, microbes that
1:07.8	can kill us, but also microbes that can save us. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick.
1:13.6	Dr. Sabine Hazan, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders.
1:21.6	Thank you. Thank you for having me.
1:23.6	So there's some news hot off the presses very relevant to your work. We have the FDA
1:30.4	approving familial fecal transplants for research purposes. I mean, this is kind of a game
1:36.4	changer. And the only reason I know it's a game changer, because we've talked in the past,
1:40.5	and I've kept talking. And the other thing is you have this study where you helped some twins,
1:48.0	autistic twins, get better. And so I want to talk about both these things and then the whole
1:52.8	bigger picture. So, but what's going on with this FDA approval now? How is that going to change
1:59.4	everything? It's going to at least allow us to do the proper research.
	...

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