Gut Revolution

Gut Revolution

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2017)

Film Review

This is a three-part Australian documentary about state-of-the-art treatment for various manifestations of gut dysbiosis.* Thanks to genetic sequencing, gut scientists can now identify approximate numbers of bacterial species in patients’ large intestines. In many cases, scientists have also identified the relative helpful/harmful effect of specific species.

For example, in high numbers some bacteria are linked to metabolic syndrome;** some produce sulfuric acid, a cause of irritable bowel symptoms (eg diarrhea, gas, bloating), and some are linked to inflammatory changes leading to depression and impaired cognitive function.

In this series, a dietician works with three patients with very different manifestations of gut dysbiosis: the first suffers from chronic diarrhea, the second from obesity and metabolic syndrome, and the third from severe anxiety, coupled with disabling abdominal paid.

The first patient rebalances her gut bacteria (and eliminates her diarrhea) by starting a low FODMAP diet,*** effective in 70% of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

The second patient rebalances his gut bacteria by eliminating all processed foods;**** increasing his intake of fruits, vegetables, and high fiber complex carbohydrates; and engaging in a modified fast two days a week. After six weeks he’s lost six kilos, as well as noticing substantial improvement in his mood and energy levels.

The third patient rebalances her gut bacteria with a Mediterranean-style diet. The latter has reduced major depression symptoms in several double blind studies. Due to severe anxiety levels, patient 3 has a long history of severe dietary restriction and also uses yoga and hypnotherapy to make it easier to try new foods.

Link to Part 1: https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/gut-revolution-a-catalyst-special—part-1/11017218

Link to Part 2: https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/gut-revolution-a-catalyst-special—part-2/11017246

Parts 1-3 can be viewed free on Kanopy. Type “Kanopy” and the name of you public library into your search engine.

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*Gut dysbiosis is an imbalance  of bacterial populations in the large intestine. According to a growing number of scientists, your gut microbiome (ie community of bacteria in your gut is just as important as genes and lifestyle in achieving and maintaining good health.

**Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels.

***A low FODMAP (Fermentible Oligo-,Di-. Mono-Saccharides and Polyols) diet eliminates short chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. High FODMAP foods should only be eliminated for six to eight weeks because most are really important for long term gut health.

****The dietary emusifiers and artificial flavors and colors in processed foods are really damaging to the microbiome.

 

 

Saving Your Child from an Over-Sanitized World

Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Over-Sanitized World

By B. Brett Finlayy and Marie-Claire Arrieta

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (2016)

Book Review

Let Them Eat Dirt is a down-to-earth parental guide to the latest research about the role of intestinal bacteria in preventing obesity, diabetes, autism, schozophrenia, depression, anxiety, asthma, eczema, allergies, autoimmune illness, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. The book also provides a lot of practical suggestions for parents seeking to promote healthy gut bacteria in their kids.

Most research points to the avoidance of antibiotics during pregnancy and the first few months of life as being most important in preventing the gut-relaed illnesses described above. In addition to recommending that expectant mothers take probiotics and give them to their infants, the authors also emphasize the importance of vaginal birth and breast feeding in transferring maternal gut bacteria to the infant. Where C-section can’t be avoided, they recommend inoculating a newborn with a swab from the mother’s vagina.

Let Them East Dirt also provides numerous tips on increasing the diversity of gut bacteria to maximize immunity. In infants and children, this is done by exposing them to a wide variety of foods and indulging their natural urge to get dirty and put things in their mouths. Finlay and Arrieta believe children are biologically programmed to engage in these behaviors to increase gut bacteria diversity.

In discussing the science behind their recommendations, they point out that only 100 species of bacteria cause human illness, out of a total of 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bacterial species on the planet. They also discuss the essential role “friendly” bacteria play in training the human immune system, as well as the devastating health consequences of disrupting this process through antibiotic overuse.

The part of the book I found most helpful gives useful suggestions for ways parents can work with pediatricians to safely minimize antibiotic use in their kids.

The Care and Feeding of Intestinal Bacteria

My personal knowledge and understanding of intestinal bacteria stems from being diagnosed with a Clostridium difficile in 2012. C. difficile is an opportunistic intestinal infection that typically develops when excessive antibiotic exposure kills off normal gut bacteria. According to Dr Thomas Borody, the Sydney gastroenterologist I consulted, I most likely became infected with C difficile in 1993 owing to excessive use of broad spectrum antibiotics for a chronic sinus infection. For 19 years other doctors dismissed my extremely debilitating symptoms (constant watery diarrhea, pain and insomnia) as “irritable bowel syndrome” and told me I had to live with them.

Borody, founder and director of Sydney’s Center for Digestive Diseases, is world renowned for pioneering the use of fecal transplantation to treat C. difficile, ulcerative colitis and other bowel disorders triggered by an imbalance of intestinal bacteria. A growing number of doctors and holistic practitioners have come to regard intestinal bacteria, collectively known as the “microbiota” as a vital organ like the brain, liver and kidneys.

Regretfully fecal transplants didn’t work for me. My symptoms persisted until December 2013, when a chance encounter with a local chemist turned me onto the GAPS diet.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome

Dr Natasha McBride, a British neurologist with a postgraduate degree in nutrition, first developed the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet for her autistic son. Like most autistic children, her son had major bowel problems in addition to the autism. Researchers have since uncovered links between endotoxin-producing intestinal bacteria, “leaky gut” syndrome and other neuropsychological conditions, such as schizophrenia, depression and ADHD.

The basic premise of the diet, which draws from the Weston A Price diet (see The Taboo Against Animal Fats) and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), is to suppress the growth of pathogenic bacteria by eliminating the sugar and starches they feeds on, while simultaneously promoting the growth of healthy bacteria by taking probiotics and eating fermented foods.

McBride recommends that all patients begin with a strict elimination diet aimed at controlling the diarrhea. For the first six weeks, all I was allowed to eat was bone broth made from boiling stewing meat or fish heads, along with probiotics, juice from fermented vegetables, water kefir and kombucha. Once the diarrhea stopped, I was allowed to add new foods at six week intervals, starting with egg yolks (raw), then whole eggs (scrambled), then avocado, then nuts soaked in salt water overnight, cooked apple, and finally lentils, navy and lima beans soaked overnight in lemon juice or vinegar solution. Like most patients with C difficile, I have great difficulty digesting fibrous vegetables and fruits. Thus I have also been very gradually adding small amounts of cooked vegetables.

At the end of 18-20 months, I am allowed to cautiously allow starchy foods, starting with new potatoes and eventually sprouted buckwheat. After 24 months, I can cautiously add very small amounts of other grains, such as rice, oatmeal (soaked) and quinoa.

Even after the C difficile resolves, I can never return to a typical Western diet, with its heavy emphasis on carbohydrates, sugar and processed food, owing to demonstrated links with many chronic illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease (I discuss this in The Taboo Against Animal Fats).

My Total Life Makeover

Given the high stress fast paced lifestyle most of us lead, westerners find it extremely difficult to totally eliminate processed foods, sugar and starch from their diet. For the past six months, I have spent most of my waking hours shopping, cooking and learning to make fermented vegetables, water kefir and almond milk yoghurt (both dairy and soy products are forbidden). The first six weeks were the hardest, due to the copious amounts of fat I had to consume in my bone broth to compensate for the calories I previously derived from sugar, rice and potatoes. McBride is very explicit: patients must eat all the fat off the stewing bones they use to prepare the bone broth.*

After six months on the diet, I feel the sacrifice is definitely worth it. After 20 years of nearly constant diarrhea, pain and insomnia, it’s like a miracle to feel normal again.

Now the only major issue in my life is a social disease called monopoly capitalism.

*I admit to cheating a bit on this requirement by substituting coconut oil (which is allowed on the GAPS diet) for half of the animal fat. I am extremely concerned about the high concentration of industrial toxins found in animal fats and dairy products. Classified as endocrine disruptors, many of these toxins mimic estrogen, which is promotes the development and growth of breast cancer.

photo credit: jamesjoel via photopin cc

Intestinal Bacteria and Chronic Illness

(This is the second of 2 posts about a possible link between intestinal bacteria, obesity, and other chronic illnesses.)

The most enlightening article I’ve seen about micrbiota (gut bacteria) research is an April 2013 article from Mother Jones. It explores the possibility that insulin resistance (see previous post) is actually an “inflammatory” process caused by the production of “endotoxin” by unhealthy gut bacteria.

The Major Health Implications of Dysbiosis

Owing to a doubling of obesity rates since 1980, this strikes me as a reasonable hypothesis. The mass marketing of antibiotics by Big Pharma, Food Inc (in livestock feed), and Monsanto (in genetically modified organisms) has led to epidemic levels of dysbiosis (a derangement in gut bacteria) in the industrialized world. In addition to skyrocketing obesity rates, the developed world has also experienced a significant increase in other dysbiosis-related conditions, including cancer, diabetes, and degenerative and autoimmune disease. It would also explain why children born to obese mothers (we acquire gut bacteria from our mothers) are more likely to suffer from asthma, attention deficit disorder, and autism.

The article cites research from the University of Washington showing that foods high in saturated fats and sugar promote the growth of endotoxin-producing inflammatory bacteria. Endotoxin, in turn, causes inflammatory damage to the the hypothalamus, the brain’s appetite center. When this occurs, people lose the ability to feel full and eat to excess.

The Mother Jones article also references studies in which volunteers improved their insulin sensitivity, as well as losing weight, by reducing their level of “inflammatory” bacteria. They accomplished this by consuming diets rich in fermented foods containing healthy, anti-inflammatory bacteria.

Most interesting of all are studies showing that bariatric (weight loss) surgery helps some patients and not others depending on their ability to grow a healthier microbiota (gut bacteria colony) following their procedure.

The Care and Feeding of Intestinal Bacteria

After suffering a sudden onset of so-called “irritable bowel” syndrome 20 years ago, I have a strong personal interest in dysbiosis. The Sydney GI specialist I consulted says the only effective treatment for most IBS sufferers is to re-establish a healthy microbiota.

The end of the article offers a number of suggestions how to accomplish this. The bottom line is to consume a diet rich in 1) fermented foods with live bacterial cultures and 2) complex carbohydrate and fiber-rich foods these organisms thrive on. Studies show that treatment with whole foods is always preferable to taking probiotics. Fermented foods contain literally thousands of strains of bacteria that work collaboratively with one another. Probiotic capsules, in contrast, contain a dozen strains at most and are likely to be destroyed by stomach acid

Examples of helpful fermented foods include sauerkraut (only if it’s made via fermentation), miso (fermented soybean paste), kefir (a fermented drink), and some yoghurts. To ensure the bacterial cultures are live, it’s best to ferment these foods yourself or get them from a reliable health food store. It’s also essential to check the label to make sure they aren’t pasteurized (pasteurization kills bacteria).

The foods these bacteria like to munch on include onions, garlic, potatoes, bananas, yams, apples, oranges, whole grains, Jerusalem artichokes, legumes and cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower).

Looking after the new bacteria in my intestine is almost like having a new pet to care for. I can already tell from my symptoms which foods they really like: yam, cooked apples, and avocado. Luckily I’m pretty keen on them myself.

photo credit: www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca via photopin cc