Digestive disease doesn’t always look like illness. You can look healthy, go to work, travel, exercise, and still be dealing with symptoms that affect nearly every part of your life. On Episode 5 of Eating, Interrupted, Cynthia McFadden and I talk about something we don’t discuss enough: the social and emotional impact of digestive disease. For many patients, the hardest part isn’t just the physical symptoms. It’s the embarrassment, isolation, uncertainty, and feeling that you have to keep it all to yourself. We’re also joined by professional pickleball player Rob Nunnery, who shares his incredibly candid story of living with Crohn’s disease and how opening up about his experience changed the way he navigated it. These are conversations worth having. Listen to the episode of Eating, Interrupted here or wherever you get your podcasts: iheart.com/podcast/1119-eati… #EatingInterrupted #MASTprogram #DigestiveHealth #GutHealth #CrohnsDisease #IBD #Gastroenterology

Episode 4 is so interesting! You can train your muscles. You can train your endurance. But did you know you can also train your gut? For athletes, GI symptoms like bloating, cramping, nausea, and diarrhea can be more than an inconvenience. They can completely derail a race. The gut has to keep up with the demands of exercise: absorbing carbohydrates, handling fluids, and functioning while blood flow is being directed toward working muscles. This episode of Eating, Interrupted with Cynthia McFadden, she and I talk about the science behind the “athlete’s gut," from fueling and hydration to why GI problems happen during intense exercise. We also hear from ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes, whose stories from the trail are incredible and show what can happen when your gut and your training plan aren’t on the same page. It was a great conversation and a reminder that performance isn’t just about how hard you can push your body. It’s also about understanding how your body responds when you do. 🎙️ Listen to “The Athlete’s Gut: Fueling Performance Without the GI Drama” on Eating, Interrupted. #GutHealth #SportsNutrition #AthleteHealth #Gastroenterology #MASTProgram #GutMicrobiome Link: iheart.com/podcast/1119-eati… 📷

I'm excited to share Episode 3 with you: "What happens when your immune system gets it wrong?" Your immune system is designed to protect you. But in autoimmune disease, that defense system can mistakenly turn against the body it’s supposed to protect. The gut plays a particularly interesting role in this process. It’s constantly exposed to food, bacteria, and other outside signals, yet it has to maintain a careful balance between responding to potential threats and tolerating what belongs there. On this episode of Eating, Interrupted with Cynthia McFadden, I help break down how the immune system works, what happens when it begins attacking the body’s own tissues, and the important relationship between the gut, food, and immunity. We also hear from Mickey Trescott, who shares her experience living with three autoimmune conditions. Her story adds an important perspective to the science. The more we understand about the gut and immune system, the more questions we can ask—and hopefully, the better equipped we’ll be to answer them. 🎧 Listen to “Inside the Immune System: How It Works and When It Goes Wrong” on Eating, Interrupted. #ImmuneSystem #GutMicrobiome #AutoimmuneDisease #GutHealth #MASTProgram #MicrobiomeResearch Link: iheart.com/podcast/1119-eati… 📷

Here is the link to the first episode of the podcast Eating Interrupted hosted by @CynthiaMcFadden where we discuss food allergies, food intolerances and food sensitivities. Stay tuned for more episodes in the near future. iheart.com/podcast/1119-eati…

We are enrolling people from the LA area for a new #IBS-D #microbiome drug trial. Breath testing is included. Even if you don't live close, retweeting can spread the word on this important study. Clicking the QR code gets you to eligibility questions and contact info.

NEW STUDY: I don't ask for things often but we are recruiting a trial for new therapy for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (#IBS -D) based on #microbiome. Please retweet to spread the word to patients in the LA area. Here is the link to contact us iredcap.csmc.edu/surveys/?s=…

For #IBSawarenessmonth we are pleased to tell you about our new therapeutic trial for IBS-D. If you are in the LA area, let us know if you are interested. iredcap.csmc.edu/surveys/?s=…

It is important to be "aware" during #IBSawarenessmonth. #IBS affects 10-20 times more people than #IBD but look at how little respect/funding there is for IBS. Embarrassing that national funding for hemorrhoid research is almost the same as IBS. This is not ok.

April is #IBS awareness month. Let's start with this... I asked ChatGPT to list the top 5 most disrespected diseases in medicine and look at what's #1! This for a disease that affects 45million people in US! Not ok. Retweet this to show everyone how wrong this is.

It now seems obvious but a great deal of work went into understanding the role of #methane and #contipation now called #IMO, setting up new drug therapy. Here we present the cause and effect evidence for methane causing constipation from @MASTprogram @CedarsSinai #theMAST5years

Paper out! Methane and Hydrogen sulfide on three-gas breath test correlate with methanogens and H2S producers in the SMALL INTESTINE! M. smithii for methane and Proteus and Desulfovibrio for H2S, among others. Methane=constipation, H2S the opposite. doi.org/10.1007/s10620-025-0…

In this study, we examine the safety of drugs for #IBS. It turns out that tricyclic antidepressants are among the drugs patients are most likely to stop due to adverse events. journals.lww.com/ajg/abstrac…

2/2 4. Transcriptomics shows the damaging effects of #SIBO, #IMO and mostly #ISO (hydrogen sulfide) on the small intestine 5. Lactulose is better than glucose for three gas breath test 6. Elemental diet is an effective option to treat #SIBO and #IMO

Summary of @MASTprogram work at #DDW2025 1. Low dose rifaximin+NAC better than rifaximin in #IBS-D. Hydrogen sulfide is indicator 2. Nationwide three gas breath test study proves link between H2S and diarrhea, methane and constipation 3. New drug reduces methane and constipation 1/2

Final day @DDWMeeting. Today Dr Juliana Germano from our @MASTprogram presents an amazing study showing how having hydrogen sulphide on your breath testing is associated with dramatic changes in your small intestinal function. 1/2

Today at 3:18pm Dr. Juliana Germano and @AliRezaieMD are presenting data on the second of three therapeutics for #SIBO/#IMO. In this study, the palatable elemental diet reduces #methane rapidly and reduces M. Smithii in the #microbiome. This helps #constipation. Great work by our @MASTprogram