Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Gut Microbiome 2014 Diet Inflammation Disease and Repair
--- My other 200 posts here ---
The year 2014 began with my posts on damage to the gut microbiota caused by antibiotics, processed foods and excess hygiene. I lamented the inadequacy of information from the media on damage/repair of the gut bacteria and highlighted medical myths with a post on some of Dr. Oz’s own ills that are self-inflicted by his diet and hygiene recommendations. I also started to discuss how to cure autoimmune diseases by repairing damaged gut flora and by avoiding the antibiotic activity present in many common drugs.With my 200th post in March, I summarized my thoughts on the causes and cures of common diseases in a series of diagrams on:
Health Diagram I — Gut Flora and Diet,
Health Diagram III — Inflammation from Cell to Tissue
Antibiotics Contribute to Autoimmune Diseases
Some species of gut bacteria are needed for the development of the aggressive half of the immune system and other species are needed for the suppressive half. Thus, starving or poisoning gut flora leads to immune system problems and diseases. Antibiotics are a quick way of crippling the immune system. It seems that the aggressive part of the immune system is less fragile, because in most cases antibiotic treatments produce autoimmune disease due to loss of bacteria that are needed for development of immune cells that block the aggressive half of the immune system from attacking innocuous cells of the body or environment, i.e. antibiotics usually trigger deficient tolerance, and autoimmunity.
Feed the Gut Microbiome for a Healthy Immune System
Diet provides food for the body and flora. Protein and fat are the macronutrients needed for the body, while the gut microbiota lives off of plant polysaccharides (except starch) that pass through the small intestines undigested into the colon. The hundreds of plant polysaccharides are hydrolyzed by hundreds of enzymes made by gut flora and produce short chain fatty acids, e.g. acetate and butyrate, that feed colon cells. Food processing systematically removes polysaccharides that feed gut flora and compromises the components of the immune system dependent on those bacteria.Repairing the Gut Microbiome by Eating the Missing Bacteria
It is easier to see that eating a diet that lacks food for the gut microbiota will be a problem, than it is to figure out where to find replacements for lost species of gut bacteria. The only way that bacteria get into the gut is down the throat. To repair a damaged gut microbiota requires both changing diet and introducing the missing types of bacteria by eating them. Eating dairy probiotics and fermented vegetables can provide a quick, but only temporary fix. Most of the needed bacteria are more common in soil than in food.Phytochemicals Are First and Foremost Antibiotics
I was shocked that my background in phytochemicals didn’t lead more directly to a major culprit causing modern diseases. The gut microbiota is clearly a major factor in health and sickness. Antibiotics that kill bacteria, damage the gut microbiota. It is also unsurprising that processing food to reduce soluble fiber, damages gut flora, by systematically depriving gut bacteria of their major source of food. The proliferation of antimicrobial products also damages the gut flora. What I missed in this onslaught of modern lifestyles on the gut microbiota, was the major player in antibiotic resistance — phytochemicals are natural antibiotics.
I Missed the Antibiotic Activity of Common Medicines
I studied phytochemicals and wrote research articles on their toxic, antibiotic activities, but everyone else was merchandizing phytochemicals as antioxidants, essential oils and superfoods. This is a major conceptual problem. Our bodies expend a significant fraction of our energy resources to detoxicify phytochemicals and human cultures have elaborate rituals to avoid phytochemicals and domesticate plants by breeding for the least toxic. What I missed was the implication that the pharmaceutical industry was repurposing toxic, antibiotic phytochemicals as medicines and then skipping the "antibiotic" label.
Unlabelled Antibiotic Drugs Cause the Rise of Superbugs
Overuse of antibiotics is a problem, because it damages the gut microbiome and contributes to the modern increase in autoimmunity. Food processing is another culprit and so is the mania for hyperhygiene and the demonization of bacteria. Unfortunately, the major culprit in the development of multiple antibiotic resistant superbugs is the tons of commonly used pharmaceuticals that systematically attack gut bacteria, but are not labelled as antibiotics. Most modern drugs were developed from phytochemicals and were initially used in plants to kill bacteria and fungi, i.e. phytoalexins. Pharmaceutical companies acknowledge the antibiotic activities of common drugs, by sponsoring research conferences to develop existing drugs as new classes of antibiotics for treatment of superbugs.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Gut Flora Disease and Obesity
---the other 200 posts---
The health of your gut flora (the interacting trillions of bacteria of a couple of hundred different species that make up the pound of bacteria that you carry primarily in your large intestines) is more important than your genetics to your overall health. Thus, your health is a result of diet, gut flora adapted to your diet and exercise. Everything else, your genetic risks, environmental toxins, etc. are of only minor impact.
I am trying to paint the big picture of how the food that you eat and your gut flora interact to determine your health, by which I mean whether you get sick, become obese and/or bloat with gas.
Health Depends on Gut Flora
If you are healthy, you have a couple of hundred different species of bacteria that help you to digest the protein, fats and carbs that you eat in meat and vegetables. Your body easily digests protein and fats in meat, fish, eggs and dairy, because enzymes to digest them are present in your stomach and small intestines. The only carbs that your body can digest are some simple sugars and starch. The rest of the polysaccharides present in plants cannot be digested without the help of bacteria. The polysaccharides that your gut flora can digest are fermentable, soluble fiber, e.g. resistant starch, pectin, inulin, arabinogalactan, xylans, beta-glucan, etc. If you can’t digest soluble fiber, because you have damaged gut flora, dysbiosis, and are missing essential bacterial species normally found in a healthy gut, then the soluble fiber just passes through as insoluble fiber and readily dehydrates into hard, constipated stools. Partial digestion due to just a few missing bacterial species produces the symptoms of food intolerances.
Constipation Results from Dysbiosis
The bottom line is that the volume of healthy, soft, firm stools is made up of gut flora that digested dietary soluble fiber and converted it into more bacteria. If you eat more soluble fiber, this food for your gut flora, will produce proportionately more bowel movements.
Gut Flora Guide Immune System Development
Most of cells of your immune system are in the lining of your gut and there are particular species of gut bacteria directly involved in the development of immune cells that have different functions as they spread throughout your body. Some of these cells are aggressive and attack pathogens, while others make sure that the aggression doesn’t get out of control and cause autoimmune diseases or allergies.
Gut Flora Divided into Groups to Show Involvement in Disease
Recent studies have demonstrated the role of gut bacteria in producing nutrients, vitamins and neurotransmitters. To highlight the essential role of gut flora in disease, I have divided the hundreds of species of gut bacteria into groups to illustrate their direct involvement in development of the immune system and regulation of the flow of dietary nutrients involved in obesity. A recent study shows that an infection can produce a change in gut flora associated with marshaling additional fatty acid nutrients for the host instead of just producing more gut flora. Chronic change of gut flora in this way leads to obesity. Other types of dysbiosis contribute to infections, cancer, autoimmune disease, allergies, food intolerances, gas and bloating.
Group A Bacteria Provide Aggressive Immunity
There are several dozen species of bacteria in healthy gut flora, including the filamentous bacteria, that trigger the development of the aggressive part of your immune system that attacks pathogens, and kills cells of your body that are infected with viruses or are cancerous. Most antibiotics don’t permanently damage this group of bacteria, so after a course of antibiotics you can usually still stop infections. Excessive suppression of aggressive immunity contributes to cancer.
Group B Bacteria Provide Suppressive Immunity
There are dozens of other species of bacteria, including Clostridia, that control the development of the suppressive half of your immune system that produces immune cells, such as regulatory T cells, Tregs, that stop the aggressive cells of your immune system from attacking your own cells and innocuous things such as food and pollen. Many common antibiotics damage these species of bacteria and are thought to contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases and allergies. Inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by a simplified gut flora with only half the healthy number of bacterial species. Resistant starch preferentially feeds these bacteria to enhance suppressive immunity and in some individuals cure autoimmune disease.
Group C Bacteria Convert Soluble Fiber to Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA)
The fermentable soluble fiber in your diet is typically from vegetables and it is converted by the largest and most diverse group of bacterial species into short chain fatty acids. Each different plant polysaccharide, and there are hundreds, requires many enzymes for complete digestion to the simple molecules used by the bacteria to make its own proteins, fats and polysaccharides. Absence of bacteria that are specialized for the digestion of particular polysaccharides or other dietary components can disrupt gut flora and cause digestive disturbances that are experienced as food intolerances (also confused with food allergies that are rare.) Some of the bacterial species convert polysaccharides into butyric acid and other short chain fatty acids that are the major source of energy for cells that form the lining of the intestines. These SCFAs are also a major food source for other gut bacteria.
Group D Bacteria Convert SCFAs to Fecal Bacteria to Produce Bulk of Bowel Movements
In healthy people, the SCFAs produced by gut flora feed the intestines and the remainder produced in the large bowel is converted into more gut bacteria, which forms soft stools. Antibiotics typically damage these bacteria and result in constipation. These bacteria are typically more sensitive to antibiotics than those that digest the soluble fiber and produce SCFAs, so the excess SCFAs pass into the blood stream and contribute to obesity instead of stools. Lean mice with gut flora exchanged from obese mice, become obese. Cattle are fed antibiotics to enhance the conversion of corn polysaccharides into SCFAs and body fat prior to slaughter.
Group E Bacteria convert Soluble Fiber to Methane and Hydrogen, Bloat
Increased volume of the intestines, bloating, results from conversion of soluble fiber into methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide gases. Some of this gas is absorbed into the blood and can pass from the large intestines, through the blood, and back to the stomach and small intestines. Helicobacter pylori, the cause of stomach ulcers and gastric cancer, can utilize hydrogen from the blood as an energy source.
In Summary:
A+B+C+D = healthy, normal weight
A+C+D = normal weight, autoimmunity and allergies
B+C+D = normal weight, susceptibility to cancer, chronic Lyme disease, food poisoning
A+B = normal weight, constipated
A+B+C = obese, constipated
A+B+D = normal weight, food intolerances
A+B+C+E = obese, constipated, bloated
Cure for Dysbiosis and Associated Diseases is Repair of Gut Flora
The excitement about the use of resistant starch (RS) and probiotics with Clostridia and other soil bacteria to reverse the symptoms of autoimmune diseases is based on the ability to repair gut flora damaged by poor nutrition and antibiotics. Low carbohydrate diets that do not provide soluble fiber to feed gut flora lead to dysbiosis and chronic diseases. Resistant starch, as the name suggests, passes on to the colon by avoiding digestion with amylases in the small intestines and acts as a soluble fiber to feed gut flora in the colon. Clostridia convert the RS to sugars and SCFAs usable by other gut flora. Note that some species of Clostridia produce toxins and it is these pathogens that take over in hospitals after the healthy species are killed off with antibiotics. Fecal transplants are the best treatment for these hospital acquired infections.
I have discussed the role of hygiene, muddy veggies, fermented foods, etc. in several other posts on repair of gut flora.
Complete repair of gut dysbiosis is possible, but it requires more than just changes in diet and dairy probiotics, as typically recommended erroneously by the medical industry.
Health is dependent on:
- an Anti-Inflammatory Diet,
- gut flora adapted to your diet
- exercise and
- adequate sleep
The rest (genetics, vegan vs. paleo, environmental toxins, organic veggies, GMOs, etc.) are minor contributors, less than 10% in aggregate, to overall health.
ref.
Gut microbiota composition correlates with changes in body fat content due to weightloss
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)