The Wellness Wake-Up Call Every Person in Their 30s Needs to Hear

At this point, wellness feels like a full-time job no one remembers signing up for. One video says your gut is broken, another says it’s your hormones, and somehow you end up with 12 supplements on your counter and no idea what any of them actually do.

On I’m Fun Now, hosts Sazan and Stevie Hendrix bring that exact chaos to Dr. Will Cole and basically say, explain this like we’re normal people. Why does your body feel fine one week and completely off the next? Why do you feel like a different person on vacation? And how much of this wellness advice is actually worth listening to?

Dr. Cole, a functional medicine expert and New York Times bestselling author, doesn’t turn it into a 40-step routine or tell you to overhaul your entire life. He just starts connecting dots—what’s going on in your gut, your brain, your habits, and your environment in a way that actually clicks.

Your grandma could drink Dr. Pepper every day because she grew up in a different world

Sazan brings up a viral video of a woman in her 80s who drinks a Dr. Pepper daily and is thriving. “She grew up in a different era,” Dr. Cole points out. “Her food supply, the soils, the things she was exposed to. The first few years of our life is so determinative of our microbiome, our immune system.” Basically her body got a 30-year head start before the world started putting microplastics in everything. We did not get that luxury, which is why we can’t necessarily get away with what previous generations could.

Your gut is literally your second brain

“95 percent of serotonin, your happy neurotransmitter, is made in the gut, stored in the gut,” Dr. Cole explains. Your gut and brain are formed from the same tissue in the womb and stay connected for the rest of your life through the vagus nerve. So if you’ve been feeling low, weirdly scattered, or like your brain is just…foggy all the time, it might not be only in your head. Your gut could be part of the picture, too. Of course, if something feels seriously off or isn’t letting up, it’s always a good idea to loop in your doctor. 

Most of your supplements might be expensive pee

Stevie dumps his entire supplement stash on the table, and Dr. Cole goes through it like a very calm, very qualified auditor. Some of it? Solid. Some of it? Not doing what he thinks it is.

What actually passed the test:

✅ Omega-3: easy 10, well-researched, no notes
✅ Creatine: 10, not just for gym bros, incredible for brain fog and cellular energy
✅ Colostrum: solid for gut support, well tolerated
✅ Spore-based probiotic: fundamentally needed but pair it with K2 for better absorption

What didn’t make the cut:

❌ B vitamins (with folic acid): not harmful, just not the best option. “I’m not a fan of folic acid,” Dr. Cole says. “The methylated form is more bioavailable.”

Your bloating disappeared in Greece for a reason

Stevie had the worst digestion of his life at 35 and then spent a week in Greece eating normally and everything resolved. Dr. Cole says it’s a combination of factors:

• Less stress (cortisol seriously messes with digestion)
• More walking (not just your one daily burst of productivity))
• More sunlight
• Better soil quality, meaning fewer pesticides and herbicides in the food

“It’s our soil. It’s the glyphosate, the herbicides and pesticides, the way our soil health [has changed],” he says. No, you don’t have to quit your job and move to Mykonos. But if your gut works perfectly on vacation and falls apart the second you land at LAX, that’s your body telling you your everyday routine might be the problem.

Cholesterol is not the villain you’ve been told it is

“About 50 percent of people who have heart attacks and strokes have normal to low cholesterol,” Dr. Cole says. “It’s like blaming the firemen for the fire.” Every cell in your body needs cholesterol. Every hormone your body makes needs it. When your body is inflamed, it produces more cholesterol as a response. The move isn’t to shove cholesterol down with statins, but to address the inflammation causing the excess in the first place. Ask your doctor for an NMR panel that looks at particle quality, not just total numbers.

We have a teaspoon of microplastics in our brains and that’s not normal

“The latest statistic is about a teaspoon worth of microplastics in our brain,” Dr. Cole says. “This is from our food and our clothing and our water and the air and the products that we use.” Before you spiral about that, his advice is simple: control what you can and don’t lose sleep over what you can’t. “Stressing about this stuff isn’t good for your health, either,” he says. Some easy starting points:

• Filter your water. Even a basic Brita is better than straight tap.
• Read the labels on your skincare and body products. If the ingredient list looks like a chemistry exam, maybe reconsider.
• Swap plastic food storage for glass when you can. Especially anything you’re microwaving. Heating plastic is where it gets really gnarly.
• Eat real food as often as your budget allows. It doesn’t have to be all organic everything. Just less stuff from a package and more stuff that actually grew somewhere.
• And then give the rest to God, the universe, or whatever keeps you from doom scrolling environmental studies at 1 a.m. You’re doing your best.

Listen to the full episode on I’m Fun Now with Sazan Hendrix, available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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