There is more that you can do for your microbiome than just take probiotics and more fiber. Our environment has radically changed. We have managed to acidify the oceans dissolving much of the coral reefs. If we can do that to the entire world we can do that to our internal environment in our digestive tract. Due to modern medicine and farming we have had major changes occur in our microbiome. Our microbiome is all of the different microbes, bacteria, viruses, fungi, that work inside us to create health. They reside in our intestinal tract in a very delicate balance. They account for more DNA than the DNA that makes us human. We walk around as humans but to keep us running we have more of their DNA than our own.
There has been a decrease in the diversity of the bacteria required to keep us healthy. This has allowed unhealthy species to roam free in there. These unhealthy bacteria such as E Coli, Klebsiella, Cyclobacter have migrated out of the lower colon and up the G.I. tract where they definitely don’t belong and create health problems.
Microbes don’t last for 70 years. They die off within hours. Their remnants can get into your blood stream. That is called endotoxemia. This is an example of how that mess down below can be experienced as rosacea on the skin. As dementia or Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s in the brain. As coronary disease, atrial fibrillation. As rheumatoid arthritis in a joint. So this is not just a G.I. problem, it can affect your entire body. We have lost crucial species of bacteria to antibiotics, which even if you haven’t received the average 40 prescriptions is in your food.
Delivered by C section means you did not acquire the microbes from mom’s birth canal. Raised on formula and you are also deficient in vital bacteria. Emulsifying agents in food, artificial sweeteners, dissolve the mucous barrier which protects us from bacteria and this changes the composition of the microbes allowing for inflammation. These chemicals are in all the foods we eat. Salad dressing, cola, peanut butter, etc. Even if you’re slender and active, you acquire the microbiome of an obese and diabetic person.
An unhealthy microbiome pushes you towards diabetes. Stomach acid blocking drugs, Statins, NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, antidepressants, are consumed like candy. When they put these drugs on the market there is no requirement to determine how it will effect your microbiome and these drugs do have dramatic negative effects on the changes in your microbiome. Chlorinated drinking water, heavy metals, mercury/cadmium, herbicides, pesticides in our salad are problematic. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Round Up.
When Monsanto filed it’s patents for it as an Herbicide, they also filed patents for it as an antibiotic. It never came to market as an antibiotic because it had so many terrible properties and only killed the good bacteria and not the bad. It selects for the bad bacteria to win out over the good bacteria. All of us have glyphosate in our blood even if we eat organic food because we breathe air, walk on the ground, and drink water. Recent evidence shows that our microbiome is somewhat the result of our parents and grandparents microbiome. Each recent generations has experienced disruptions in their microbiome.
What we lose is Foundational or Keystone species. In the ocean there is plankton. Filter feeding fish such as Jelly Fish or even Whales consume the plankton. When the plankton start to disappear in the ocean the bigger species such as the whales start to suffer. This phenomena that applies to the oceans is an example of a Keystone species. This principal applies to our G.I. Tract.
Two keystone species out of hundreds is Bifidobacteria infantis and Lactobacillus reuteri. When these two are restored it has tremendous positive effects on our health. They help reduce our weight and waste size, smoother skin, reduce wrinkles, and reduces inflammation. Infants sleep better, have fewer bowel movements, and get less colic. They can reduce joint pain. You can recover faster from life events such as exercise. They can help deeper sleep. As we age we lose about a third of our muscle, we lose bone density. Instead of using medications to replace this loss, you can do it with healthy microbes. Better mood and reduced anxiety has been observed. The immune response is increased by adding a few microbes. Healing time is accelerated. Healing faster is an indirect surrogate for youthfulness.
90% of infants do not have enough Bifidobacteria infantis microbes. So if these kids are not getting their good bacteria because of C section delivery and formula and they are getting antibiotics through mom for 9 months, where are they getting their microbes? From hospital surfaces, nurses, staff, etc. Hospitals are full of filthy microbes. This is not where children are supposed to get their microbes from. They get an overgrowth of bad bacteria known as Proteobacteria. These begin to overpopulate the baby. Babies do not have the enzymes to digest the oligosaccharides in breast milk. They need the healthy bacteria to do that. As a baby develops into a child they could have less asthma, allergies, and autoimmune disease if they have the necessary bacteria to run their bodies. They can have higher I.Q.’s. Less obesity. This one unseen bacteria can change the course of a child’s life.
When buying a probiotic you need to pay attention to the strain. We all have E. Coli. If we ate lettuce contaminated with cow maneuver we could die from kidney failure and sepsis. It is the same species, E. Coli but a different strain. All bacteria nomenclature lists the Genus then the Species. That would be the second part of the name. In this case, infantis is the species of Bifidobacteria. There are thousands of different bifida bacteria. Bifidobacteria is the genus. The strain of a bacteria is usually a combination of letters and numbers. Some commercial probiotics don’t list the strain and the strain can result in significant effectiveness.
Fermented foods are great probiotics. Commercial yogurts are fermented for 4 hours. That means the bacterial count has only had enough time to double. The longer it ferments, the higher the bacteria count. I choose cole slaw over the French Fries for that reason alone. Would you rather have a penny that doubles every day for a month or a million dollars. Take the penny because at the end of 30 days it is over 5 million dollars. That is how fermentation works. You get more bacteria with longer fermentation processes. At hour 36 the bacteria are really beginning to populate.
Irritable Bowl Syndrome IBS, usually goes hand in hand with SIBO, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. SIBO is a very tough diagnosis to deal with. B. infantis is not only good for babies and mom’s but people with these common gut problems just mentioned. It has also been found to reduce symptoms from Fatty Liver Disease, which is becoming epidemic and ulcerative colitis. Most people have anxiety and depression to some degree and like snake oil, B. infantis bacteria have shown to be helpful. The vagus nerve receives information in the gut and goes directly to your brain. The bacteria down there can affect your mood.
Bacteria don’t exist in isolation. They collaborate with each other. When you put them together you get massive synergistic effects. Think 2+2= 20. In a nutshell, most babies born into our modern world do not have this vital bacterial but it can be restored.
Another lost species is Lactobacillus reuteri. Everything mentioned earlier applies to the downfall of this species. I just saved you a lot of reading. These are really vital with regards to the Gut-Brain Axis. It is involved with our capacity to produce the feel good hormone Oxytocin that is produced in large amounts when about to give birth. It is the hormone of love and empathy. They classify this bacteria as a psychobiotic. It likes to make a home in the upper G.I. tract and that is unusual for microbes. It produces natural antibiotics called bacteriocins. It is effective against SIBO and other pathogenic species. But, we’re losing this good bacteria from modern living. Less than 1 in 20 of us maintains this species. The exact strain is Lactobacillus reuteri 55730. Researchers had to go to Peru to find a woman that was producing it in her breast milk. From there they brought it back to Europe to cultivate it. The primitive tribes in South America, Africa, Indonesia, etc. don’t take antibiotics. They don’t ingest any of things we do. They are not exposed to the microbiome destruction that we are. Inversely, they all have this bacteria that we don’t. Raccoons and Squirrels have the bacteria. Does that make us less than these lower mammals?
Let’s look at what happens when you restore this bacteria. In lab animals the increase in oxytocin was 300% The decrease in corticosterones the stress hormones was approximately 100% White blood cells decreased because they were not under attack from bad germs. The weight of the Thymus increased. The thymus stops making immune cells when we’re young. It colonizes the entire G.I. tract. Sends a signal via the Vagus nerve to the Pituitary and Hypothalamus to produce oxytocin. One noticed effect in the mice was open wounds healed quicker if given L.reuteri. 5 year olds heal quicker than 70 year olds. Yes we’re talking about longevity and retaining youthfulness with the consumption of this bacteria. The healing time in mice was cut by 50%. In humans, 35%.
The deposition of collagen in the dermis exploded within days of L. reuteri. Mice given a diet to mimic a fast food diet became obese without L. reuteri and the mice that had the bacteria in their microbiome looked half the size of the obese mice eating the same exact diet. The mice without the bacteria got old and died. The mice with the bacteria stayed young until they died. Under the microscope their muscle cells began to look like a young mouse’s. It reversed muscle loss. In humans we lose 35% of our muscle mass as we age. There are no studies yet to say this works in humans, but the odds are in your favor. We hear a lot about child abuse. Yet this bacteria creates the hormone of love and affection. 96% of the population has lost this microbe that is responsible for provocation of Oxytocin at a time when we have high levels of social isolation and suicide. Well it couldn’t hurt to have some of this bacteria in your gut. Oxytocin also makes it easier to see another person’s point of view. We have a lot of social problems and what the world needs now is L. reuteri. which helps create love. Oxytocin increases a desire for sociability. Ironically, it reduces social anxiety. Or maybe not so ironically.
Oxytocin restoration as a psychobiotic suppresses appetite, improves sleep, libido, and empathy. Appetite suppression means you will not be tempted by those french fries and donuts laying around. It also increases testosterone, growth hormone, and reverses thymic involution, meaning you will have a stronger immune system. Possibly less cancer. A study done on workers revealed an approximate 15% decrease in calling in sick with half the study group being placed on a small dose of L reuteri. When the study was performed just on shift workers, nobody called in sick. L reuteri is a crucial player in our immune response.
These are the emerging observations regarding L. reuteri: Reduced autistic behaviors, increased oxytocin, changes in the hypothalamus. Heals colitis. Reduced skin inflammation and photo aging. Reduces development of melanoma. Reduces chronic periodontitis. Reduces atopic dermatitis. Farmers give antibiotics to their livestock to make them gain weight. Then we eat their antibiotics. They gain the same amount of weight with L. reuteri which means you could be consuming less antibiotics if the cattle were treated differently. Most of these claims are still being evaluated with experimentation. This has been my idea of what was interesting from a lecture by Dr. William Davis author of the book, Super Gut mixed in with my knowledge on the subject.
