[ Editorial Standards ]
How I write.
The Gut Check is a gastroenterologist’s letter on gut health, performance, and longevity. What follows is the standard I hold this work to.
If I ever violate one of these, you have a license to call it out, and I will publish the correction.
[ § 01 ]
A letter from a gastroenterologist, not a storefront — for now.
The Gut Check is a publication. You'll get a twice-monthly letter written by a gastroenterologist (FRCPC) who trains like an athlete. The letter will always be the letter. We may, in time, build adjacent things — a supplement we'd actually take, a coaching program for runners, a clinical resource for fellow physicians. If and when we do, the editorial standard you're reading right now stays in force: cited evidence, transparent partnerships, no surprise costs, no paywall on the letter itself. The day that ever changes, we'll say so on the front page.
[ § 02 ]
Partnerships only when the evidence agrees.
We are open to partnerships — affiliate codes, brand collaborations, sponsored products — but only with companies whose products meet a clinical standard: evidence-backed, safe, and a real benefit to performance or health. The rule is simple: I will not recommend anything I would not take myself, give to my own patients, or hand to a training partner before a long race. When something is sponsored, we disclose it on the page where it appears, not buried in a footer.
[ § 03 ]
We do not paywall the science.
The newsletter is free, every issue. A paid clinician tier with continuing-medical-education credit may launch in the future for fellow physicians; the public letter stays free.
[ § 04 ]
We cite primary literature.
Every empirical claim is anchored to a peer-reviewed source with a PMID or DOI. When we hedge, we say what we're hedging on. When the evidence is mixed, we say so. When we don't know, we say so.
[ § 05 ]
We use the best evidence, not the closest.
At the bedside, CAG (Canadian Association of Gastroenterology) guidelines apply first. The newsletter is adjacent to that practice — not the same as it. Here we follow the strongest evidence wherever it lives: CAG, ACG, AGA, NICE, ESSGI, primary RCTs, meta-analyses, the occasional well-conducted observational study when that's the best we have. When the major societies disagree, we explain why and let you see the disagreement, not the consensus version.
[ § 06 ]
We frame ideas, not personalities — with one honest exception.
This brand is built around one editor's perspective. That's the whole point — you're here for a specific gastroenterologist's read on the evidence, not a faceless feed. So the personality is in the room. What stays out of the room is other people's personalities. We critique claims, products, studies, and industry patterns — never individuals. The fight is with the evidence, not the person who said it.
[ § 07 ]
We correct ourselves in public, and we want to hear from you.
When we are wrong, we say so in the next letter. The original piece gets a dated correction note — visible, not buried. And we want this to be a conversation, not a broadcast. Reply to the letters. Push back when the data goes against what we wrote. Ask the question your gastroenterologist didn't have time for at your last appointment. The best issues of The Gut Check have started as one reader's question — and that's how this gets better.