Showing posts with label gut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gut. Show all posts
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Obesity and if it was a matter of gut flora
We know obesity is a multifactorial disease.
One of the possible causes is currently the subject of much research: the composition of our intestinal flora.
Intestinal flora which encourages obese to eat more?
A landmark study on the subject was published in 2010 in the journal Science (1). It focused on mice whose intestines had been genetically engineered and housed accordingly more bacteria than normal.
Result: mice unbalanced intestinal flora were heavier than the others, and ate 10% more if they had the chance. This effect was accompanied by the classic signs of the metabolic syndrome: hypertension, elevated blood lipids, glucose, resistance to insulin.
They were also more markers of inflammation, which is, for authors, perhaps the key phenomenon. When the cells of the organism must respond to inflammation, they are in fact less available to regulate the level of sugar in the blood. But this rate is important for the regulation of appetite!
How to rebalance our intestinal flora to fight against overweight and obesity?
The study is very preliminary and needs to be confirmed by other studies. Doctors are far from being able to draw practical lessons for the fight against obesity in humans.
However, it is not the only argument that makes us uneflore promote intestinal well balanced. The bacteria found in our gut are indeed important for our transit is harmonious. They are also part of our line of defense against infections ...
So bet on probiotics!
Thus, we call all the bacteria that we swallow and that will have a positive effect on our health.
You can find easily in capsule form, or in some foods - yogurt or other fermented milk products. This second solution is often the most effective, since Probiotics are living organisms that must remain until your gut to take effect.
Now sold as dietary supplements, probiotics are first dried and then stored for several months on the shelves ... It is easier to ensure their survival in a yogurt that is one of their natural habitats and to be eaten days.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Soluble Fiber Food for Gut Flora
The human body only produces enzymes to digest proteins, fats, starch and a few simple sugars. The remaining components of food either pass through the intestines undigested (insoluble fiber) or are digested by bacteria and fungi in the colon (soluble fiber.) Soluble fiber feeds gut flora. Insoluble fiber is usually minimized by traditional food preparation, for example grains, because it contains unhealthy materials, such as phytic acid. Soluble fiber is healthy and required for normal development of the gut/immune system, whereas insoluble fiber should be avoided.
Soluble Fibers in Vegetables are Carbohydrates/Polysaccharides
Plant cells are surrounded by cell walls composed of long chains of sugars, polysaccharides. These wall polysaccharides, e.g. pectin, arabinogalactans, xyloglucans, and storage glucans and fructans, are highly complex in structure and can only be digested down to simple sugars by the action of dozens of different enzymes produced by dozens of different bacterial species in the colon. Many plants (as well as fungi and bacteria) also produce unique polysaccharides that are only susceptible to additional unique bacteria enzymes. Thus, digestion of diverse vegetables requires hundreds of different species of bacteria in the gut. Healthy gut flora consists of more than 150 different species of bacteria, which were eaten with food and adapt to the gut environment.
Food Intolerances/Most Food "Allergies"/Constipation Reveal Missing Enzymes
Enzymatic treatment of complex polysaccharides in the gut is a complex process that also yields many intermediate products that can influence both gut flora and the gut itself. A well adapted gut flora can systematically digest most of the food molecules that pass into the colon and produce only short chain fatty acids (CFAs) that feed the colon and pass through the liver to the rest of the body.
Antibiotics or a history of limited food choices and excessive hygiene can result in a simplified gut flora that only partially digests soluble fiber and results in accumulation of unusual byproducts that irritate the gut, and cause bloating and gas. Adverse reactions are called food intolerances or food allergies. Since bowel stools are composed predominantly of loosely packed gut flora, inability to fully digest and convert soluble fiber into more gut flora, also results in constipation.
Soluble Fiber in Meat is also Polysaccharide
Meat is made of fibers of protein connected to bone by polysaccharides. The tendons, gristle and other chewy parts of meat are made of chondroitin sulfate and other glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Heparin is another GAG, which is released onto the surface of the intestines to block the adhesion of viruses and pathogens to the gut, and is subsequently digested by colon bacteria. Other components of meat (and vegetables), such as nucleic acids and some fats are also digested by enzymes of the gut flora. The versatility of gut flora to adapt to a huge variety of foods permits people to live on very diverse diets, ranging from vegan to paleo.
Modern Diets Starve and Simplify Gut Flora
Modern diets consist of processed foods that are made of fat, protein and starch, all of which are digested and absorbed before reaching the colon. These simplified foods produce a simplified gut flora that may also produce more CFAs rather than stool forming gut bacteria. In other words, eating larger amounts of simpler foods can result in more of the nutrients being absorbed and making it easier to gain weight on less food with a tendency toward constipation. These diets may also select for bacteria that maintain the simplified, "efficient" gut flora community and provide the potential for the spread of obesity through a population. Having friends and relatives who are obese and presumably have gut bacteria that favor obesity, increases the risk of obesity. It seems likely that obesity is contagious.
Simplified Gut Flora also Means a Compromised Immune System
Complexity in the gut flora is also needed to produce a healthy immune system, because different species of bacteria in the gut stimulate the development of different parts of the immune system, which develop in the lining of the gut. Soluble fiber is the normal food for the colon bacteria that control the part of the immune system that regulates autoimmunity and allergy, for example. Obesity is also associated with increased risk of degenerative and autoimmune diseases, which is consistent with defects in the gut flora that reside in the colon. Thus, the modern high carb diet contributes to the symptoms of obesity by elevating blood sugar, blood CFAs, as well as compromising the gut flora needed for normal functioning of the immune system.
Healthy Gut Flora = Anti-Inflammatory Diet + Eating New Bacteria
A damaged or simplified gut flora can be fixed by eating foods that supply nutrients for the body as well as feeding the gut flora, e.g. plenty of different types of soluble fiber. It is also necessary to eat the missing bacteria. Just adding a few probiotics with yogurt will not fix the problem and cooking kills all of the good bacteria. Fermented foods, especially those based on bacteria from your own home and garden, are good sources of health-providing bacteria. Raw vegetables will also provide bacteria that may be useful in your gut flora, as long as the vegetables are not too thoroughly washed. Sterilizing and cooking vegetables may avoid rare pathogens, but will certainly prevent contributions to a healthy gut flora.
Read more »
Soluble Fibers in Vegetables are Carbohydrates/Polysaccharides
Plant cells are surrounded by cell walls composed of long chains of sugars, polysaccharides. These wall polysaccharides, e.g. pectin, arabinogalactans, xyloglucans, and storage glucans and fructans, are highly complex in structure and can only be digested down to simple sugars by the action of dozens of different enzymes produced by dozens of different bacterial species in the colon. Many plants (as well as fungi and bacteria) also produce unique polysaccharides that are only susceptible to additional unique bacteria enzymes. Thus, digestion of diverse vegetables requires hundreds of different species of bacteria in the gut. Healthy gut flora consists of more than 150 different species of bacteria, which were eaten with food and adapt to the gut environment.
Food Intolerances/Most Food "Allergies"/Constipation Reveal Missing Enzymes
Enzymatic treatment of complex polysaccharides in the gut is a complex process that also yields many intermediate products that can influence both gut flora and the gut itself. A well adapted gut flora can systematically digest most of the food molecules that pass into the colon and produce only short chain fatty acids (CFAs) that feed the colon and pass through the liver to the rest of the body.
Antibiotics or a history of limited food choices and excessive hygiene can result in a simplified gut flora that only partially digests soluble fiber and results in accumulation of unusual byproducts that irritate the gut, and cause bloating and gas. Adverse reactions are called food intolerances or food allergies. Since bowel stools are composed predominantly of loosely packed gut flora, inability to fully digest and convert soluble fiber into more gut flora, also results in constipation.
Soluble Fiber in Meat is also Polysaccharide
Meat is made of fibers of protein connected to bone by polysaccharides. The tendons, gristle and other chewy parts of meat are made of chondroitin sulfate and other glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Heparin is another GAG, which is released onto the surface of the intestines to block the adhesion of viruses and pathogens to the gut, and is subsequently digested by colon bacteria. Other components of meat (and vegetables), such as nucleic acids and some fats are also digested by enzymes of the gut flora. The versatility of gut flora to adapt to a huge variety of foods permits people to live on very diverse diets, ranging from vegan to paleo.
Modern Diets Starve and Simplify Gut Flora
Modern diets consist of processed foods that are made of fat, protein and starch, all of which are digested and absorbed before reaching the colon. These simplified foods produce a simplified gut flora that may also produce more CFAs rather than stool forming gut bacteria. In other words, eating larger amounts of simpler foods can result in more of the nutrients being absorbed and making it easier to gain weight on less food with a tendency toward constipation. These diets may also select for bacteria that maintain the simplified, "efficient" gut flora community and provide the potential for the spread of obesity through a population. Having friends and relatives who are obese and presumably have gut bacteria that favor obesity, increases the risk of obesity. It seems likely that obesity is contagious.
Simplified Gut Flora also Means a Compromised Immune System
Complexity in the gut flora is also needed to produce a healthy immune system, because different species of bacteria in the gut stimulate the development of different parts of the immune system, which develop in the lining of the gut. Soluble fiber is the normal food for the colon bacteria that control the part of the immune system that regulates autoimmunity and allergy, for example. Obesity is also associated with increased risk of degenerative and autoimmune diseases, which is consistent with defects in the gut flora that reside in the colon. Thus, the modern high carb diet contributes to the symptoms of obesity by elevating blood sugar, blood CFAs, as well as compromising the gut flora needed for normal functioning of the immune system.
Healthy Gut Flora = Anti-Inflammatory Diet + Eating New Bacteria
A damaged or simplified gut flora can be fixed by eating foods that supply nutrients for the body as well as feeding the gut flora, e.g. plenty of different types of soluble fiber. It is also necessary to eat the missing bacteria. Just adding a few probiotics with yogurt will not fix the problem and cooking kills all of the good bacteria. Fermented foods, especially those based on bacteria from your own home and garden, are good sources of health-providing bacteria. Raw vegetables will also provide bacteria that may be useful in your gut flora, as long as the vegetables are not too thoroughly washed. Sterilizing and cooking vegetables may avoid rare pathogens, but will certainly prevent contributions to a healthy gut flora.
Milk Kefir and Gut Flora
Milk is a dramatic manipulator of gut flora. It is a baby’s first food and provides necessary nutrients, but of equal importance, it crafts a community of gut microorganisms that develop the gut and immune system of babies. Breastfed babies receive protein, fat and sugar, but they also coat their tiny stomachs and even their respiratory system with maternal lymphocytes and bacteria. The major carbohydrate in breast milk is lactose, but there are other prebiotic oligosaccharides (HMO, human milk oligosaccharides) and polysaccharides (GAGs, glycosaminoglycans) related to heparin and chondroitin, which carefully limit which bacteria can grow in babies. There are firm reasons why exclusively breastfed babies have diapers that smell like yogurt and look like curds and whey.
Milk Shows an Exaggerated Interaction between Food and Flora
Evolutionary selection is extreme to favor women who can successfully birth large babies and nurture them for years on breast milk. Fewer than 5% of women in a general population need medical intervention for gestation, labor, delivery and breastfeeding. Essentially all women and babies are genetically predisposed to healthy childbirth and milk-based child development. Clearly, milk is powerful and an examination of the composition of milk should yield information on the interaction between food and gut flora.
Milk is the Prebiotic for Dairy Probiotics
Traditional preservation of cows milk produces fermented kefir, butter, yogurt, cheeses, etc. These are all controlled fermentations that begin by converting lactose into lactic acid. Michael Pollan devoted a major section of his book, Cooked, to the cultural ramification and biology of fermentation. It seems magical that leaving milk to sour will reproducibly yield a common dairy beverage. When I taught microbiology, I had students spike raw cow’s milk with E. coli and then measure the decreasing survival of these common gut bacteria that are actively excluded from dairy fermentation. One of the lessons here is that milk stops the growth of adult gut bacteria and supports the growth of lactic acid bacteria found in baby diapers and used to make fermented dairy products.
Milk is Toxic to Most Microorganisms, until Digested
Enzymes in the stomach convert milk proteins into antimicrobial peptides. Later in the small intestines, pancreatic proteases digest and inactivate the peptides until they are converted into amino acids and are absorbed by the intestinal microvilli. Milk is a natural antibiotic and is used ritually for cleansing wounds and pruning hooks. Ritual fire walking ends by walking through a pool of cow’s milk. The spread of plant disease in orchards from tree to tree is minimized by dipping pruning tools in milk. The proteins, fatty acids and carbohydrates in milk kill or inhibit the growth of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Early studies of the bacteria in breastfed babies showed an exclusive group of lactic acid bacteria and an absence of adult gut bacteria. Breast milk was shown to contain a “bifidus factor” that selected for baby gut flora and this special ingredient was later shown to consist of a complex mixture of short chains of sugars, human milk oligosaccharides. Thus, human milk is good for babies, but bad for adult gut flora because most of the protein, fat and carbs are digested and no soluble fiber remains for colon gut flora.
Enzymes in the stomach convert milk proteins into antimicrobial peptides. Later in the small intestines, pancreatic proteases digest and inactivate the peptides until they are converted into amino acids and are absorbed by the intestinal microvilli. Milk is a natural antibiotic and is used ritually for cleansing wounds and pruning hooks. Ritual fire walking ends by walking through a pool of cow’s milk. The spread of plant disease in orchards from tree to tree is minimized by dipping pruning tools in milk. The proteins, fatty acids and carbohydrates in milk kill or inhibit the growth of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Early studies of the bacteria in breastfed babies showed an exclusive group of lactic acid bacteria and an absence of adult gut bacteria. Breast milk was shown to contain a “bifidus factor” that selected for baby gut flora and this special ingredient was later shown to consist of a complex mixture of short chains of sugars, human milk oligosaccharides. Thus, human milk is good for babies, but bad for adult gut flora because most of the protein, fat and carbs are digested and no soluble fiber remains for colon gut flora.
Formula Kills Baby Gut Flora
Formula made from cows milk or soy is toxic to baby gut flora and even a single bottle of formula can permanently damage it. The disastrous impact of formula on gut flora is readily observed in the change to smelly diapers. Mothers trying to give the best start to their babies can tell when the night nurse got lazy and just fed her baby a bottle of formula! Use of formula in hospitals instead of mothers nursing or using donor milk greatly increases contamination of babies with deadly strains of hospital bacteria, e.g. C. dificile, and causes necrotising enterocolitis. The only reason that babies can survive formula and the growth of adult gut flora in the first weeks of life, is that the disrupted gut flora is highly inflammatory and the inflamed gut provides some protection from infection. Babies are tough, but there is no reason for hospitals to continue to use formula when research clearly shows that it is a risk to the health of babies. Health concerns are forcing hospitals to encourage exclusive breastfeeding, but more work needs to be done so that donor breast milk is the alternative.
Raw Avoids Risks of Pasteurization and Ultra Homogenization
Milk straight from the udder contains natural dairy probiotics that are fit for a calf. Dairy probiotics are different from baby gut flora and calves are different from babies, so cow milk is not appropriate for babies. Processing cows milk by heat (pasteurization) or extreme mixing to make ultra small fat droplets (homogenization) changes the structure of milk to increase storage shelf life, but the restructuring also produces some health risks for gut and gut flora. Since leaves are rich in short chain omega-3 fatty acids and seeds are rich in omega-6s, grass fed cows produce healthier (higher 3/6 ratio) milk that may not store as well.
Raw Avoids Risks of Pasteurization and Ultra Homogenization
Milk straight from the udder contains natural dairy probiotics that are fit for a calf. Dairy probiotics are different from baby gut flora and calves are different from babies, so cow milk is not appropriate for babies. Processing cows milk by heat (pasteurization) or extreme mixing to make ultra small fat droplets (homogenization) changes the structure of milk to increase storage shelf life, but the restructuring also produces some health risks for gut and gut flora. Since leaves are rich in short chain omega-3 fatty acids and seeds are rich in omega-6s, grass fed cows produce healthier (higher 3/6 ratio) milk that may not store as well.
Kefir is a Yeast and Bacteria Biofilm
Commercial dairy products are uniform, because they are made from milk using defined mixtures of pure cultures of bacteria and fungi. These dairy probiotics can substitute but not replace gut flora, because they cant grow in a healthy gut. Kefir is a little different, because the kefir grains are biofilms of yeast and bacteria held together by a polysaccharide called kefiran made by a bacterial enzyme that rearranges the glucose and galactose sugar residues of lactose. The point here is that if you grow your own kefir, you may end up with many species of bacteria and some may be able to contribute to your gut flora. Many supermarket "kefirs" are just a blend of common dairy probiotics and maybe some inulin, and have no benefits over commercial yogurt.Dairy products are nutritious, but will not benefit the health of your gut flora (fermented vegetables are a better choice), because they lack soluble fiber and do not contain gut flora, but your gut flora may adapt to the inherently disruptive nature of raw milk.
200th Post — Diet Inflammation Disease Gut Flora
— all 200 Posts —
I started posting to Cooling Inflammation on 21 Aug, 2008 with How Your Diet Makes You Sick or Healthy. My impetus for writing was my growing awareness that diet was the major reason why people were sick, and that health myths were preventing people from being healthy. Inflammation originated by diet-inflicted injury and people attributed their sickness to genetics, environmental toxins and pervasive pathogens.
My Path to the Obvious
My research background started with plant biochemistry, including carbohydrate structural analysis and polyphenol chemistry. At that stage I was interested in understanding how plants protected (phytoalexins) themselves from pathogens, and I expected to use this perspective to explore human innate immunity. From there, I went on to enzymology and protein characterization, biofilm structure, plant genetic engineering and breeding, monoclonal antibody production, mycotoxin detection, stem cell analysis, passive immunity in neonates, computational modeling of collagen and heparin binding, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan inhibition by inflammation. These were temporary foci and the research imperatives, in retrospect, prevented me from seeing the bigger pictures, although they did leave me with a broad skill set.
Perspective: Water and Surface Tension
When I finally decided to slow down, smell the flowers and start having kids, I switched from research to teaching, from university to small liberal arts college. For the first time, I actually thought about what I was teaching and my first revelation was that after teaching biochemistry for twenty years, I didn’t understand water and surface tension. I could provide the platitudes from the Molecular Biology of the Cell, but I couldn’t do it mechanistically with colliding, sticky, energetic water molecules in my mind or at the blackboard. I had to develop functional explanations of hydrogen bonds, entropy and thermal energy, that translated into the structuring of a layer of water molecules responsible for hydrophobic interactions and surface tension. I extended that to include an explanation of the two layers of water holding together cytoplasmic membranes, the tube of structured water that holds together the cylinder of stacked bases in DNA or the shrink wrapping water layer surrounding proteins.
Perspective: Heparin Binding and Amphipathy of Sugars and Basic Amino Acids
As the kids got older, I started to dabble in research again and my expertise in carbohydrate chemistry led me into cartilage (mostly the glycosaminoglycan, GAG, chondroitin sulfate) synthesis and ultimately another GAG, heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). I was attracted to the dynamic HSPGs, that recycled with a half-life of six hours and formed layers around chondrocytes that secreted cartilage as they burrowed/ate through living cartilage. I learned that the heparin filled granules of mast cells could be stained with berberine, which similarly stained the heparin in basement membranes of tissues and amyloids of Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis and diabetes. I was led by protein modeling of collagens to the binding of heparin to proteins and the revelation that basic amino acids (heparin binding domains) and sugars (heparin) are amphipathic, i.e. they have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions. This is also true of plant polyphenolics. Thus, polyphenolics, “basic” amino acids, “hydrophobic” amino acids, and sugars will all stack together.
Amphipathic Interactions
- DNA bases stack.
- Heparin binding sites of proteins are basic amino acids (Arg, Lys).
- Sugar binding sites in enzymes and lectins are hydrophobic amino acids (Trp, Tyr, Phe).
- Nuclear translocation signals, quartets of basic amino acids, bind to receptors with tryptophans.
- Tryptophans are the most highly conserved amino acids in the same proteins across great evolutionary distances.
- Hydrophobic bonding between tryptophan and a sugar or basic amino acid is ten times greater than hydrogen or ionic bonds.
- Tryptophan/Arginine ladders zip regions of proteins together.
- Polyphenols can disrupt cellular protein interactions by binding to receptors for carbohydrates/heparin, steroid hormones, amyloids, etc.
- Heparin holds dozens of hormones to receptors and changes the shapes of proteins, e.g. clotting and complement.
- Most nucleic acid binding proteins will also bind to the more negatively charged heparin.
- Bacteria use a pair of lysines to mark proteins for export.
- Peptides containing the basic amino acids of heparin binding domains (also produced by the specificity of gastric proteases) are antimicrobial, e.g. defensins, and so are plant polyphenols.
- Many drugs are active because they are domesticated plant polyphenols.
From Heparin Binding to Antigen Presentation
As soon as I realized that basic amino acids were involved in heparin binding, I started to look for the basic amino acids (R for arginine and K for lysine in amino acid sequences) in proteins known to bind heparin. After study of hundreds of structures, it became obvious that heparin binding domains were simply a pair of basic amino acids (RR or KK or RK) with another within a distance of six amino acids. No particular structure was necessary, as I later deduced, since binding to the heparin provided the structure. In fact, in many X-ray crystallographic structures, the heparin binding regions on the surface of the protein are missing, because they are not in a defined shape. I suspected that protein antigens involved in autoimmunity and allergy might be brought into cells for presentation to the immune system by interacting with HSPGs on the surface and so started to check them out for heparin binding domains. I was very skillful at picking out pairs of Ks or Rs within sequences of hundreds of amino acids by that time, so I was shocked to see that the first dozen antigens that I checked, all had a triplet of basic amino acids. I had discovered that autoantigens and allergens utilize a basic triplet analogous to the basic quartet used in nuclear translocation! This also explained why proteins that interact with nucleic acids and are transported into the nucleus with a basic quartet are also prominent autoantigens.
Gut Flora and Immunity
Twenty years ago I read a curious description of leprosy that said that the course of infection could be either innocuous or devastating depending on whether the aggressive or the suppressive part of the immune system dominated. I remained perplexed until I realized that diet and gut flora were the major determinants. I was aware of the importance of diet at the outset of this blog, because it was clear that diet trumped genetics. I was also aware thirty years ago in my studies of passive immunity, that milk contained bifidus factor, now known to be milk oligosaccharides, that controlled the growth of Lactobacilli that in turn controlled the development of the neonate immune system. It was also known that bacteria-free mice had impaired immune systems. It still took me several years for the relationship between diet, gut flora and immunity to make sense. I began searching the literature for connections between gut flora and development of the immune system and soon noted experiments that linked filamentous bacteria with aggressive components and Clostridium spp. with Tregs. A further refinement was linking resistant starch, a soluble fiber, with Clostridium.
My Current Views are Summarized in Three Health Diagrams
Diet, Gut Flora, Inflammation, Antigen Presentation, Tregs and Autoimmunity
Protein from the body and from food don’t normally stimulate the immune system, because there in no inflammation, the proteins lack basic triplets that enhance presentation, and antibody production and aggressive T cells are suppressed by Tregs. Diet can throw the balance toward autoimmunity and allergy, by producing inflammation, e.g. hyperglycemia/AGE or high omega-6 fatty acids/prostaglandins, and starving gut flora needed for Treg production by eating processed food lacking soluble fiber. The combination of inflammation and Treg deficiency causes proteins, either self or potential allergens, which have basic triplets to be presented to the immune system and stimulates attack by the immune system.
The Cure is to Cool Inflammation and Stimulate Tregs with Diet and Bacteria
I have provided an outline with The Anti-Inflammatory Diet to avoid inflammation, to stimulate existing gut flora with soluble fiber and encourage Treg production. Mark Sisson, on Mark’s Daily Apple has provided an excellent dietary guide that also provides starch guidelines. If you already have symptoms of autoimmune disease or allergies, then Richard Nikoley provides gut flora repair advice on Free the Animal, and Dr. B G provides more details on Animal Pharm.
Autoimmunity and allergies are not genetic destiny and they can be cured with diet and bacteria.
Disease Genes in the Gut Microbiota
--- the other 200 posts ---
 |
| Species of Gut Microbiota |
Summary: Doctors take medical histories and enquire about family diseases. It seems like they think there are human genes behind human diseases, but when we say, “It runs in the family,” what we actually mean is our gut bacteria, microbiota, are shared with relatives along with our eating habits. Diseases result from problems with gut bacteria and not from problems with our genes.
Genetic Diseases are Rare
Not too many years ago, the technology for massive projects to thoroughly identify the genes behind the most prevalent human diseases became available. The results were clear and shocking. Genes were not a major contributor (less than 10%) to disease. And yet, the families studied clearly had a major predisposition to each of the diseases studied. Something was causing the disease in those families, but it just wasn’t any of the 23,000 genes identified in the human genome project. People all have essentially the same physiology determined by very similar genes. Health differences are predominantly due to gut bacteria.
A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures
Genes are not Destiny
Commercial analysis of personal gene sequences was recently prohibited as a method of determining risk of disease, because the link between gene sequences and risk could not be substantiated. The reality is that, aside from a few obvious molecular diseases, most genetic variations in gene sequences do not matter in an otherwise healthy person. There aren’t Alzheimer’s or obesity or heart disease genes. Diet, gut microbiota, sleep and exercise are far more (>90%) important. Most genetic risk factors can be overcome by an Anti-Inflammatory Diet with fermented vegetables, and a robust gut microbiota protected from medicine/antibiotics.
Gut Bacteria are Family
So if it is not human genes that run in families to make relatives share similar diseases, what is making them sick? Relatives share their eating habits and gut bacteria. This makes sense. Diet and gut microbiota are the major determinants of disease and relatives pass their bacteria around the table with their food. There are eating habits and particular patterns of gut microbiota that lead to common diseases. Unbeknownst to us, most of the diseases of modern life, e.g. heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disease, mental illness, are transmissible by gut bacteria.
The Hygiene Hypothesis is Right and Wrong
For decades it has been obvious that early exposure to a farm environment, meaning an abundance of microbes, a diverse microbiota, eliminates allergies and many autoimmunities. The Hygiene Hypothesis explained how early exposure to abundant microorganisms could eliminate allergies, as an early exposure to antigens that trained the immune system. Early training of the immune system was later discounted, but the Hygiene Hypothesis then morphed into the current explanation, that early development of a diverse gut microbiota is needed to produce a healthy immune system.
Fix Your Diet, Fix Your Gut Microbiota and Fix Your Diseases
The good news is that all of the chronic diseases that threaten your future can be cured by just fixing your diet and repairing the complex bacterial communities in your gut. Your immune system is critical to your health and damage to your immune system is the typical beginning to most diseases. Damage to the immune system starts in the gut, where the aggressive and suppressive halves of the immune system develop in response to particular species of bacteria. Those essential bacteria grow on the food in your diet that is not digested in the stomach and absorbed as nutrients in the small intestines, i.e. prebiotic fiber. Thus, you eat to feed yourself and your gut bacteria. Without the gut bacteria, you would be deficient in vitamins, your immune system would cease to function and you would be constipated. Fixing your diet and gut microbiota will cure your diseases.
Posts that discuss repair of gut microbiota
Dr Oz on Gut Flora Repair
--- the other 200 posts ---
I am amazed that Dr. Oz and the medical industry can encounter symptoms of dysfunctional gut flora, e.g. constipation, food intolerance, autoimmunity, allergy, that are preceded by antibiotic treatment and not address the compromised species diversity of the gut. The involvement of gut bacteria in immune system function is documented in the biomedical literature. The lasting impact of antibiotics on gut bacteria is known. Then why do Dr. Oz and the rest of the medical industry just recommend probiotics, a half dozen different species of bacteria found in fermenting dairy products (think elephants and giraffes), to repair a decimated gut bacterial community? They seem to be perplexed and ask, "Where is the hippo?"
Generalizations about Gut Bacteria
Each healthy human maintains a subset of a couple of hundred of the couple of thousand different species of bacteria found in humans around the globe. The diverse community in each individual may differ in species, but has approximately the same complement of genes in people sharing the same diet.
- 1-200 different species of bacteria per person
- 1-2000 different species of human gut bacteria
- 1 million different genes among the different bacteria
- Most genes are involved in digesting plant carbohydrates, i.e. soluble fiber: inulin, pectin, fructans, algal sulfated polysaccharides, etc.
- Diet diversity, e.g. the Modern American Diet, reduces the diversity of the gut bacterial community, presumably because the rapid change in foods permits survival of only generalist bacteria that can digest many different foods.
- Simple diets produce gut flora diversity, but only if there is access to diverse bacteria.
- Health may result from diverse gut flora developed from a simplified diet and ample bacterial resources.
- Obesity and other diseases may result from simplified gut flora developed from a changing, complex diet and a sterile environment/isolation.
- Vegan and paleo extremes can lead to healthy gut flora diversity, if the gut bacterial community is permitted to adjust to the diet composition by avoiding rapid changes and providing diverse bacterial sources.
- Meat contains complex polysaccharides, e.g. glycosaminoglycans, such as chondroitin sulfate and heparan sulfate proteoglycans, which are bacterial fodder equivalent to soluble fiber.
- Probiotics are unique bacterial species that do not persist in the gut of adults, but dominate the gut of milk eating babies and stimulate development of the gut and immune system.
- Probiotic bacteria can temporarily provide developmental signals for immune system development that are normally provided by a healthy gut flora.
- Antibiotics cripple gut flora needed for development of the immune system.
- Common medicines have significant antibiotic activity and modify gut flora.
Damage to Gut Flora is Not Repaired by Diet Alone
There is little or no effort being made by the medical industry to develop approaches to repair gut flora damaged by disease, unhealthy diets or medical procedures. This is similar to a surgeon stepping away from removal of a diseased organ without closing the wound. Antibiotics leave a gut flora that will remain permanently damaged without systematic, monitored repair. It might also be suspected that disruption of gut flora by antibiotics and the introduction of large amounts of new foods, such as high fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils may contribute to or cause the modern prominence of obesity. After all, gain or loss of weight changes gut flora, obese individuals have damaged gut flora, and trading gut flora between fat and lean animals, trades weight gain/loss behaviors.
Sources of Bacteria to Repair Damaged Gut Flora
- We must eat new bacteria in order to replace bacterial species lost by antibiotics or unhealthy diets.
- Probiotics -- bacteria that aide gut function, commercially from dairy fermentation
- Fresh vegetables -- bacteria are on the surfaces of plants unless the vegetables are cleaned or cooked
- Fermented foods -- Bacterial growth leading to acid or alcohol production has beed used in the preparation and storage of many foods and provides a rich bacterial resource.
- Environment -- Bacteria are transferred to our hands and face from other people, pets and surfaces, unless hands and the body are continually washed. Sanitizers and frequent washing of hands and surfaces eliminate acquisition of environmental bacteria to repair damaged gut flora. Social isolation and hygiene block repair of gut flora.
- Replacement -- experimental replacement of damaged with healthy gut flora (fecal transplant) has been very effective in curing many diseases without significant risks, but is restricted by the medical industry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)