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No Appointment Necessary

How Your Gut Affects Your Mood, Weight & Immune System

25 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 1.894 Cherry Healey

Today we're talking about gut health.

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1.914 - 4.137 Dr Amir Khan

And lots of people refer to the gut as the second brain.

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4.177 - 10.486 Cherry Healey

We're starting to realise that it's kind of the foundation of our health and it's been really neglected. It's irritable bowel syndrome, dangerous.

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10.606 - 18.057 Dr Amir Khan

There's certain diets that people might be recommended to try and manage it. I would say, I mean, peppermint is really good for gas because...

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18.61 - 38.411 Cherry Healey

You've got to look after your little gang of bacteria. They're almost like your best friends. If you look after your gut, you are looking after your brain, your mood, your immune system. I think it's amazing. That's incredible. A huge welcome to No Appointment Necessary. My name is Cherry Healy. You can call me Chezza, Chesney.

38.571 - 53.126 Dr Amir Khan

And I am Dodra Mia Khan. I'm a GP, usually up in Bradford. But I come down once a week to record this podcast with you, Chezza. Do you have a nickname? No, I don't actually. I'm just a reader. How boring.

53.246 - 55.129 Cherry Healey

If you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe.

Chapter 2: How does gut health connect to mood and immune system?

55.169 - 63.482 Cherry Healey

You never miss an episode. If you're listening on Spotify or watching on Spotify, if you're listening on Apple, follow, subscribe. Be in our gang.

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63.622 - 75.82 Dr Amir Khan

Be in our gang. And if you haven't already, join our Facebook group. It is full of fabulous people. And we want you to come and join us. Ask us questions. We read the questions. We answer the questions. Just search No Appointment Necessary.

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75.8 - 87.114 Cherry Healey

It's such a lovely community, isn't it? Like people really have discussions and share lots of information and we love to hear from you. Yes. This week's check-in is all about gut health. I love this subject.

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87.174 - 88.255 Dr Amir Khan

Such a good topic.

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88.435 - 88.755 Cherry Healey

Huge.

88.776 - 89.737 Dr Amir Khan

Everybody's talking about it.

89.757 - 102.552 Cherry Healey

Absolutely. But I think we're starting to realise that it's kind of the foundation of our health and it's being really neglected. So what's normal, when to worry, bloating, IBS, how your microbiome supports how you feel every day.

103.313 - 105.115 Dr Amir Khan

Yes, it's going to be really interesting to hear.

105.095 - 118.034 Cherry Healey

But first… For this episode, we've partnered with Randox Health and their Every Man and Every Woman Check. Dr Mir, over to you.

Chapter 3: What are the signs of a healthy versus unhealthy gut?

1023.582 - 1032.213 Dr Amir Khan

People will know that the more you move, the more your bowels move as well. That's really key. If you're sitting down all day or lying down all day, you're likely to be more constipated.

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1032.253 - 1039.382 Cherry Healey

That makes sense because everything's, the mechanics of it makes sense. You're moving, you're kind of helping the movement change.

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1039.362 - 1057.409 Dr Amir Khan

You are. But the other thing movement does is it diverts blood away from the gut, which sounds counterproductive. But if I'm going out on a run, let's say, blood will be diverted towards my running muscles because that's what getting the priority when it comes to food and oxygen. And that diversion away from the gut actually stimulates the gut to move.

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1057.729 - 1079.401 Dr Amir Khan

So you might have heard of runner's poos as well as period poos or runner's trots. And so, you know, you get the urge to pass motions when you're out exercising. Right. And sleep is a key part as well. Sleep is really good for your gut microbiome. It helps with them and it keeps them helpful. And they do a lot of work while you're sleeping. And so it's really good for them.

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1079.581 - 1085.87 Dr Amir Khan

And so all of those things combined, if you can't take HRT or whether you're on HRT, should actually help with your gut movements.

1086.031 - 1094.563 Cherry Healey

Sounds like the five pillars to me. It does. It always goes bang dong. The same things. If someone has a really sensitive stomach, could that be IBS? And what is IBS?

1094.797 - 1111.978 Dr Amir Khan

Yeah, so IBS is irritable bowel syndrome. And it's a diagnosis that we make on a basis of a collection of symptoms. So there's no test for irritable bowel. We often have to rule out other things like inflammatory bowel, which is Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, and bowel cancer as well, of course.

1111.958 - 1129.883 Dr Amir Khan

But the symptoms that are collectively known as irritable bowel are a hypersensitive gut, cramping, which can be very painful, lots of bloating and a change in your bowel habits usually alternates between constipation and diarrhoea. And it happens. We don't really know exactly the cause.

1129.863 - 1152.048 Dr Amir Khan

It could be stress-related, it could be trauma-related, it could be a physical or mental trauma that can trigger off these symptoms. Anxiety plays a big part of it because the gut and the brain are really linked. We have a nerve called the vagus nerve that connects the two of them, but also... the gut microbiome release what we call neurotransmitters.

Chapter 4: What role do antibiotics play in gut health?

2046.31 - 2073.617 Dr Amir Khan

Feed them. Feed them and get them to multiply. How does gut health affect our ability to lose or maintain weight? It does. There's no doubt about it. So when you're focusing on gut health, you're eating these whole foods, right? And you're eating a lot of plants with fibre in. Fibre keeps you full for longer. So technically, you shouldn't be eating as many calories if you're eating whole foods.

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2073.597 - 2088.923 Dr Amir Khan

And you'll find that, you know, if you're eating a banana or an apple, it takes time to eat a whole banana and a whole apple. It's different to juicing it and stuff, isn't it? You're chewing it, you're taking your time and it fills you up. The fibre fills you up. So overall, you shouldn't eat as many calories.

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2088.903 - 2109.302 Dr Amir Khan

If you're not eating whole foods and you go straight to that ultra processed stuff, that stuff is designed to be eaten quickly and make you want more of it. It doesn't trigger your fullness hormones in your brain. So you eat more calories overall and then you start putting on weight because you're eating things that are full of sugar, calories, fat.

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2109.322 - 2118.15 Cherry Healey

Does it not create that satiated feeling, that fullness feeling because your gut is saying this isn't what we need?

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2118.13 - 2137.337 Dr Amir Khan

So people often refer to it as empty calories. I'm eating empty calories. The idea behind that is these ultra-processed foods have been designed to... They're not particularly hard. You don't have to chew them for very long. When you swallow them, they move really quickly through your gut. So it doesn't stay in your stomach to get broken down all that quickly.

2137.397 - 2151.797 Dr Amir Khan

Because if you think about it, a crisp or a chocolate, it's quite soft. It melts, right? It just turns to liquid. It moves through really quickly into... It doesn't contain many nutrients that have to stay in your gut so things can extract those nutrients. Your body's thinking, this has got nothing in it. Let's get it out of the gut.

2152.538 - 2169.701 Dr Amir Khan

So all that slow digestion that keeps you full, that triggers your brain to think, oh, I'm full. Actually, that doesn't happen. What happens instead is the exact opposite. It moves so quickly through your gut and is so unhelpful to your health. Your brain thinks, I need more food because that has nothing in it. I'm still starving. Yeah.

2169.721 - 2175.648 Dr Amir Khan

So you end up, it keeps you coming back for more, but because it tastes so good, you go back for more of that shite.

2175.948 - 2186 Cherry Healey

You don't go for like a bean soup after that. No. You want another pizza. If you want to maintain or lose weight, actually making sure you eat enough of those whole foods.

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