Overcoming Chronic Canker Sores Through Data-Driven Gut Health and Oral Microbiome Testing

I think the Urban Monk program represents what should be the future of medicine. I think this is a holistic approach. It's also, you know, very science-based and data-based. My hope is that this is what the future of medicine looks like, and other people can have the same types of outcomes that I had. My name is Brian Felix. I live in Asheville, North Carolina, and I'm a professor of music. It's funny 'cause I really wasn't experiencing anything that I identified as gut-related. I had, like, one major thing that I was trying to fix, and that was canker sores. I was getting really bad canker sores for maybe 10 years, and just one after the other. I had tried so many things. You know, my wife is actually a health coach, and, like, she knows a ton of stuff, and we had worked on things together trying to just figure it out. You know, I consider myself to be healthy, but, like, why, why am I g- am I getting these super painful sores in my mouth over and over and over again? And so what happened was actually she heard Pedram Shojai doing a podcast interview with one of the guys who was the proponent of that FIT176 test, which is the food inflammation test, and it sounded like it was maybe more advanced than other tests. And so I was like, "You know what? I'm looking for an answer. I'm sick of just, like, shooting blindly in the dark trying to find stuff." You know, 'cause even being educated about, like, health issues and functional medicine, like, it still felt like I was just completely blind, unable to figure out what was going on. I took that test. I took the FIT176 test, and then that test yielded results that I thought pointed a path forward. It affected my mood. It affected my daily life in a really negative way. It affects everything you do really, anytime you're talking, anytime you're eating. But then there was just, like, the frustration and resignation around not being able to figure out what was going on, and so that really, that really took a toll on me on a day-to-day basis. I really appreciated the detail in that first FIT176 test, and I appreciated the consultation that I got that came along with that. It was with one of their health coaches, Naomi, and I just had a 30-minute conversation that really changed-- I mean, honestly, at this point I can say it changed the course of my life because she was very knowledgeable, very kind, and was also able to understand the data in a way and explain it in a way that made it made sense to me. That was the thing that prompted me to sign up for the gut health program, for the Sage program with Urban Monk, because I felt like for the first time in a decade, there was a path forward that it showed, and it was worth it to me to follow that path and to try to figure it out, because otherwise, I was at a loss. There was enough data that it showed, and there was actually a convincing link between the FIT test and what I was experiencing, and that was the first time that I had ever actually seen that. Just, you know, the different tests that personally that I did, like there's oral microbiome test and the FIT tests and then the GI map test, and there's all these different tests, and then all the information I got from them, which was quite a bit. I think since I had already done so much work rebuilding my gut health, it was almost, like, instantaneous that I felt a sudden shift where I could actually feel my body settle down, and I actually, like, became confident that I wasn't gonna get any more canker sores because I could sort of feel it systemically. Well, I feel like my body feels a lot more even throughout the day, just a lot more stabilized. I feel like there's a lot, lot less, like, up and down. I have, like, found what feels like a solution to this problem that is so mysterious and also, by the way, was very complicated, and they did a great job of, like, pulling out the different threads and trying to figure out what the whole, you know, the holistic reason for this whole thing was. But just having an answer is life-changing. I mean, it's really life-changing. I don't have that uncertainty anymore, or I have a way that I can manage it, and that is-- that's really what I went into it for. I don't wanna necessarily be under a doctor's care my whole life. I mean, I think the whole idea is to, like, be able to do it yourself, and so I think that they gave me the tools to do that, and so now I feel like it's finally paying off. It's been a long journey, but it's really paying off. So yeah, I feel, I feel free of this issue, which is really incredible. I think the thing that surprised me the most was how diverse the resources they had were. We were focusing on kind of the gut health and sort of stabilizing that area, but then there was a point of one or two months into the program where they brought in a whole, like, other team of oral microbiome specialists who were able to address this whole other side of, like, oral health. And so that to me was when I was like, "All right, this is really, like, a comprehensive program," and they're really working together in a way that I haven't really seen before. I was really thrilled with that. I recognize now that it absolutely was a gut issue in addition to other issues. I was s-surprised at how much work I had to do restoring my gut health. It just opens up a lot of mental and emotional space. It definitely makes me feel a lot more at peace, and so I think it translates into my daily life too. If you're thinking about working with Urban Monk, I would say try taking one of their introductory tests, have the consultation with one of their health coaches, and then they'll be honest with you about whether they think they can help your situation or not. Those tests can really show you something that you haven't seen before in a very precise way. For me, it was absolutely worth it. You can't really put a price tag on your health. The opportunity to really look under the hood, which is what Urban Monk provides in a very comprehensive way, it is an investment, but I feel like I got every penny of value worth out of it, just in the tests and in the supplements and in the conversations with the health coaches and then in the access to their-- the academy and stuff. It's like you're getting an educational program as well. And so it was really worth it for me. That's all that I can say.