Most people understand the importance of a healthy gut microbiome for digestive health and overall wellbeing. But what about the mycobiome―the fungi that live inside our bodies? This podcast introduces this important component of the microbiome and explains how diet affects this population and how its balance or imbalance can cause you to feel―a poor balance of fungi can lead to weight gain, pain and bloating, and low energy, and can worsen symptoms for those with IBS or Crohn’s. Good news: Gut fungi respond quickly and dramatically to dietary and lifestyle changes. Within 24 hours, you can remake your mycobiome, supporting a path to weight loss, better digestion, and more energy. Alongside this accessible gut science, my guest, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum, author of the new book "" outlines fast changes for fostering healthy fungi as well as 7- and 20-day diet plans, with more than 50 dietician-tested recipes, to cultivate a thriving mycobiome and methods for tweaking your lifestyle for long-term gut health. Dr. Ghannoum is a tenured professor and director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Educated in Lebanon, England, and the United States, he received his PhD in Microbial Physiology from University of Technology in England and an Executive MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He has spent his entire career studying medically important fungi and publish-ing extensively about their virulence factors, especially in microbial biofilms. Over the past decade, Dr. Ghannoum recognized the role of the microbial community (both bacterial and fungal) in human health and published the first study describing the oral fungal community, coining the term“mycobiome.”He described the bacterial microbiome (bacteriome) and the mycobiome in HIV-infected patients, and led the characterization of the interaction between bacteria and fungi as they relate to health and disease. In 2016, he published an opinion piece in The Scientist on the contribution of the myco-biome to human health and was consequently invited to speak at a number of meetings organized by the National Institutes of Health. He conducted a study characterizing the bacterial and fungal communities in Crohn’s disease patients that resulted in the first model of microbiome dysbiosis that implicated cooperation between bacteria and fungi in biofilms. This work resulted in a publication that received national and international coverage. Dr. Ghannoum is also a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and a past President of the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas (MMSA). He has received many distinguished awards for his research, and in 2013, he was selected as“MostInteresting Person” by Cleveland Magazine. In 2016, he received the Rohda Benham Award presented for his continuous out- standing and meritorious contributions to medical mycology from the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas and the Freedom to Discover Award from Bristol-Myers Squibb for his work on microbial biofilms. In 2017, he was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He continues to be a pioneer in the characterization of the human microbiome. With over 400 peer-reviewed publications to his credit and six published books on antifungal therapy, microbial biofilms, Candida adherence, and related topics, Dr. Ghannoum continues to be a prominent leader in his field. The National Institutes of Health has continually funded his research since 1994, and he recently received a large NIH grant to study the mechanism(s) of bacterial/fungal interaction in intestinal inflammation, such as in colitis and Crohn’s disease. He has also consulted for many international pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and co-founded multiple successful and profitable companies, including BIOHM Health, launched in 2016, that engineer products and service