Tag Archives: gut flora

When Poop is the Best Medicine

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Fecal Transplants-yes, it does sound gross- are the next big thing. Of all those tips for keeping your gut flora healthy, or rebuilding your gut flora, a fecal transplant is the most effective. If someone else’s poop has millions of healthy bacteria in it, that will beat any probiotic, most of which contain 1-8 types of bacteria. It is just not something you can do yourself. OpenBiome in Medford, MA, has started the long process of making it easier to get through your doctor.

Here are some quotes from the article on Boston.com about OpenBiome.

“To keep your digestive and immune systems functioning properly, your body needs to maintain a natural balance of bacteria in your gut. But antibiotics taken to treat infections kill both “good” and “bad” bacteria indiscriminately. They kill it all, upsetting the balance and making the gastrointestinal tract susceptible to C. difficile, a “bad” bacteria. The resulting infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects more than 500,000 Americans per year, causing fever, nausea, abdominal pain, and serious diarrhea—and kills 14,000 Americans per year, especially in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

There are antibiotics that treat C. difficile, but as many as 20 percent of the infections return.

Our poop, it turns out, is a plentiful source of this good bacteria, and how do you get one person’s good-bacteria-filled poop into an ailing person? A fecal transplant.”

Read whole article here or visit www.openbiome.com

Transform your IBS with FODMAPs

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watermelon

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a pain in the ass! It affects approximately 15% of the population. The good news is: there is a new treatment in town.

IBS symptoms include:

  • bloating
  • gas
  • abdominal pain
  • diarrhea
  • constipation
  • alternating diarrhea and constipation.

These symptoms can also be indicative of more serious conditions such as Crohn’s Disease and Celiac Disease (autoimmune disorders that cause damage to the intestine), so a doctor needs to rule these out before a diagnosis of IBS can be concluded. If your intestines are otherwise healthy, but you routinely experience the symptoms above, then you would be diagnosed with  IBS.

Some of the possible causes of IBS:

  • A current gastrointestinal infection
  • A past gastrointestinal infection (post-infectious IBS)
  • Antibiotic use
  • One or more food sensitivities
  • Gut dysbiosis—imbalance in your gut bacteria

Each of those causes can be the result of unhealthy gut bacteria (or flora).

Not surprisingly, then, the solution to IBS is to try to change your gut flora. (Also not surprising, Crohn’s and Celiac patients have gut dysbiosis too, and therefore can also benefit from the following protocol).

FODMAPs

FODMAPs are a group of naturally occurring sugars that are fermentable. In a healthy gut, foods with FODMAPs wouldn’t cause any symptoms. But for some people, these sugars are big trouble. They travel through your small intestine, unabsorbed, and are therefore available for your gut flora to eat. When bacteria eat FODMAPs, they release gas, which in turn leads to all those symptoms listed above.

FODMAP is an acronym that stands for:

  • F: Fermentable
  • O: Oligosaccharides (Fructans and Galactans)
  • D: Disaccharides (Lactose)
  • M: Monosaccharides (Fructose)
  • A: and
  • P: Polyols (sugar alcohols)

The list of foods that contain one or more of these FODMAPs is very long. Which means of course, that following a low FODMAP diet is pretty restrictive. But it works for 75% of people with IBS. Imagine that!

The restrictive part is only for a few weeks, and is called the elimination phase. After getting your symptoms under control and resetting your gut, you reintroduce these foods, one at a time, to see if they still produce symptoms. Some will and some won’t.

But then you’ll know what bothers your tummy. And the idea is to eat the most varied diet you can, without experiencing problems. Since there are so many foods involved and you want things to get this right the first time, this diet works best with the guidance of dietitian.

 

photo credit freedigitalphotos.net

How to Help Your Child have a Healthy Gut

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I have written a lot about your gut flora, why it is important and what happens when it goes bad.

For us adults, we have to work on setting our gut right. But for us parents, we have to work on keeping our child’s gut right. The microbiome (all the bacteria and other microbes that share our body with us) can help prevent or help cause: allergies, cancer, obesity, autoimmune diseases, to name just a few. People in undeveloped countries don’t have any of these problems, because their microbiome has never been disturbed.

A vaginal birth is ideal, as the baby gets coated in tons of protective bacteria that lay the groundwork for a healthy microbiome. Breastfeeding aids in this too. But sometimes these two factors are beyond our control.

What else to do to help them keep and cultivate the good bacteria and stave off the bad:

  • Avoid antibiotics unless it’s absolutely necessary (They kill off the good bacteria)
  • Sugar and refined starches to a minimum (They feed the bad bacteria)
  • Plenty of green veggies (feed the good bacteria)
  • Plenty of fresh fruit (feed the good bacteria)
  • Yogurt or other probiotic containing foods
  • No juice
  • Avoid steroid medicines or NSAIDs (aspirin)
    • Use Tylenol instead

What happens in your young child’s life can get his/her microbiome set up or destroyed, having tremendous impact on his/her long term health.

Are Your Bacteria Working for You or Against You?

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I wrote recently about our 100 trillion bacteria living in our gut. If all circumstances are ideal, these bacteria are good and diverse. And keep us in good health

Good healthful gut bacteria are very delicate. And harmful ones are hearty. Here are the things that change your gut bacteria for the WORSE:

  • The foods you eat
  • C-section birth
    • A woman’s body actually pours tons of protective good bacteria into the birth canal during labor so that the baby is covered during birth. These protective bacteria are the baby’s first exposure to any microbes.
  • Antibiotics
    • Even one course of antibiotics can alter the ratio. Some species are killed off completely
    • Most of the antibiotics used are in the animal industry and we are consuming them in the meat we eat.
  • GI infections
  • Chronic stress
  • Environmental Toxins
  • Low stomach acid
  • Excessive hygiene

The term for having a poor ratio of good bacteria and low diversity of microbes is gut dysbiosis.

Gut Dysbiosis is associated with:

  • IBS
  • Bloating and distention
  • Celiac
  • Crohn’s and Colitis
  • GERD
  • Some cancers
  • Obesity
  • Allergies and food sensitivities
  • Heart disease
  • Mental disorders: autism, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression

It’s important to get your gut health back! Book an appointment today to get your gut flora in shape!

Why your gut bacteria are so important

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I post a lot about your gut flora (the bacteria living in your gut). Research comes out everyday, showing us how these guys are way more important than anyone ever thought. After all, all disease starts in your gut. But let’s back up a minute. I will be doing a series of digestive posts, and need to lay the groundwork.

There are 100 trillion bacteria living in your digestive track. That’s 10 times more bacteria than human cells in your body. Most of these bacteria live in your colon. But some are in your small intestine. These make up your gut flora. (And these plus any microbes on your skin make up your microbiome)

The flora is made up of at least 800 species and 7000 different strains of bacteria. Some of these bacteria are good and some are bad. The amount, diversity, and ratio of good to bad are different for every person. Ideally you have more good than bad bacteria and they mostly reside in your colon.

The ones that are good are vital to your health. Perhaps the most important influence on your health.

Why are they so important?

  • they convert food into substances that nourish the lining of your digestive track
  • they protect the integrity of the GI lining-so that the good gets into your body and the bad stays out.
  • they create some vitamins and minerals
  • they help absorb some nutrients
  • they are your first line of immunity defense
  • they prevent gastrointestinal infections
  • reduce inflammation
  • prevent food allergies
  • regulate body weight
  • and all hell breaks loose when the diversity, number and ratio get altered for the worse

photo: freedigitalphotos.net

Bacteria that protects against food allergies

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More and more we are learning about our gut flora (those bacteria that inhabit our digestive tract) and how they help us out. They are part of our immune system, they help (or hinder) our digestion, and more and more research is pointing to these bacteria having a role in our food cravings, weight troubles, and even autoimmune diseases. If we can continue to learn about this perhaps we can prevent some of these health issues by discovering which bacteria are responsible for which action and then take the right probiotic as a supplement.

Today a research study found isolated the type of bacteria that can protect against food allergies. Clostridia is the bacteria. Read the whole article here.