Once a year, this newsletter deals exclusively with the MICROBIOME, even though each issue has articles about it. Its research is exploding. By now I hope you understand your gut bacteria, totally depended on your diet and the chemicals you ingest (pesticides, preservatives, drugs, etc.) greatly influence your Microbiome. An imbalance therein has been documented in practically ALL DISEASES.
Hugo Rodier, MD
Autism’s Gut Connection
Researchers are finding clues to autistic behavior — in patients’ gut bacteria. Using fecal transplants to improve symptoms have shown promise in preliminary studies.
Adam Piore (Credit: Jay Smith). J. Discover October 13, 2020
“It’s not always easy to convince people that the human gut is a sublime and wondrous place worthy of special attention. Sarkis Mazmanian discovered that soon after arriving at Caltech for his first faculty job 14 years ago, when he explained to a local artist what he had in mind for the walls outside his new office. The resulting mural greets visitors to the Mazmanian Lab today. A vaguely psychedelic, 40-foot-long, tube-shaped colon that’s pink, purple and red snakes down the hallway. In a panel next to it, fluorescent yellow and green bacteria explode out of a deeply inflamed section of the intestinal tract, like radioactive lava from outer space.
The mural is modest compared with what the scientist has been working on since. Over the last decade or so, Mazmanian has been a leading proponent of the idea that the flora of the human digestive tract has a far more powerful effect on the human body and mind than we thought — a scientific effort that earned him a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant” in 2012. Since then, Mazmanian and a small but growing cadre of fellow microbiologists have amassed a tantalizing body of evidence on the microbiome’s role in all kinds of brain disorders, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and depression.
But the results they’ve seen in autism could, in the end, prove the most transformative. Autism affects about 1 in 59 children in the U.S., and involves profound social withdrawal, communication problems, and sometimes anxiety and aggression. The causes of the brain disorder have remained speculative. Now, Mazmanian and other researchers are finding that autism may be inextricably linked to — or even caused by — irregularities in the gut microbiome.”
Gut Feelings
https://www.buffalo.edu/…/articles/Spring-2016/features/gut-feelings.detail.html. Lauren Newkirk Maynard
“The microbiome, poised to transform modern medicine—perhaps even to alter our perception of what it is to be human—is still largely a mystery. But researchers at UB and elsewhere are on the path to solving it. Our work at University at Buffalo (UB) has grown exponentially, and it’s terrifically exciting. What’s happening here and elsewhere has the potential to rewrite the microbiology textbooks we all learned from.”
“Much like the Earth itself, our bodies teem with life that is not, strictly speaking, our own. Trillions of tiny organisms, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and other one-celled microbes invisible to the naked eye, reside in and on us in specialized communities. Together they form what’s called the microbiome—our body’s complete ecosystem of microorganisms. To illustrate just how prolific these little guys are, our microbes are estimated to outnumber the body’s cells 10 to 1; together they weigh between one and three pounds in an average-size adult. And they’re not just along for the ride. Many organisms making up the microbiome play well with their hosts and with each other, helping control and maintain our immune system, weight, hormone levels and other vital life functions. But balance is the key. All microbes are opportunistic and can flood our systems when competing microbes are absent; some, like the E. coli bacterium, can do quite a bit of harm as a result, causing serious illness or, if they succeed in overwhelming the microbial and bodily defenses, even killing their host.
Consequently, it’s the nastier microbes that often dominate headlines, as the medical community rushes to develop and prescribe ever more potent antibiotics to combat new strains. However, scientists, physicians and the public are starting to pay more attention to our body’s beneficial microbes, realizing the powerful, healing roles they play in human health and well-being.
Microbiologist David Relman, who co-directs the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, is among those who are attempting to shift the focus of infectious disease research to include not just the pathogenic microbes but the “good guys” as well. Speaking about the microbiome at UB this past fall as part of President Tripathi’s Critical Conversations series, Relman, one of the country’s top researchers pursuing this relatively new field, seemed at times to be in awe of our dual biologies—that of our own cells and that of the cells of our microbial partners. “We are one type of life among many, many others. Nothing exists in isolation,” he said.
Indeed, human microbes have been around as long as we have, and thrive in different amounts and groups inside our body’s many habitats, including in our intestines and mouth, on our skin, and in our nostrils. These groups can be quite different from each other, but, as Relman described, there are also similarities among microbial communities around the world. For instance, a North American’s gut bacteria, or flora, may have more in common with the gut bacteria of someone in Japan than they do with the bacteria in that individual’s own gums.
Microbes, like our own genes, may also predict our future health. Bacteria found in a pregnant woman’s vagina are passed along to the baby’s underdeveloped gastrointestinal tract at birth and, along with breast milk, help seed the newborn’s gut flora with the right microbial mix to help it—and the child—develop normally. Some researchers suspect that birth by cesarean section and formula feeding may be linked to health issues later in life because the infant wasn’t exposed to that very specific combination of beneficial bacteria.
Before the microbiome, our bodies’ genes were another great medical mystery to be solved. While scientists have mapped the human genome—the DNA-driven genetic material common to all of us—our microbes are another story. Their genes, as well as their overall structures, functions and interactions with each other, and with us, are still greatly unknown. UB has long held a pioneering role in genomics—the study of genes and their DNA building blocks. In the 1990s, UB geneticists, including J. Craig Venter (now with the J. Craig Venter Institute) and Norma Nowak (PhD ’86 & MS ’80), helped sequence and map the human body’s 23,000 genes in the landmark Human Genome Project. Encouraged by that achievement, in 2007 the National Institutes of Health launched the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) to study the genetic material of microbial communities found in 18 different sites within the body, including the oral cavity, lower intestine, skin and vagina. In total, they collected more than 11,000 specimens from 300 adults using cutting-edge genomic sequencing technology to spot the microbes’ presence.
A year before the HMP launch, a team of scientists from UB, Stanford, Washington University in St. Louis and what was then called The Institute for Genomic Research (now the J. Craig Venter Institute) published results of a milestone study on the human colon in the journal Science. It was the world’s first DNA sequencing of all the genes of an entire community of human microbes.
The researchers on that study included Relman and microbiologist Stephen Gill, who was then on faculty in the Department of Oral Biology in UB’s School of Dental Medicine. Today, researchers worldwide—including an increasing number at UB—study the microbiome using genetic blueprints from these previous projects. “Our work at UB has grown exponentially, and it’s terrifically exciting,” says Robert Genco (DDS ’63), SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Oral Biology and Microbiology and Immunology—and a vocal proponent of microbiome research. “What’s happening here and elsewhere has the potential to rewrite the microbiology textbooks we all learned from.”
With its scientific rigor and public outreach, the HMP also brought gut bacteria into the mainstream, prompting best-selling food journalist Michael Pollan in 2013 to have his own gut microbiome tested. His results (and many others’) are proudly promoted by the “American Gut” initiative, a crowdsourced version of the HMP that aims to collect data on Americans’ fecal flora. In turn, that data will become part of the open-source Earth Microbiome Project.”
How Your Gut Immune System Influences Your Mental Health
New research sheds light on a hidden part of the gut-brain connection.
J. Psychology Today, Posted Sep 13, 2020. Austin Perlmutter, MD.
“You’ve probably already heard that your immune system is key to your health. For example, people with an overactive immune system (e.g. chronic inflammation) or an underactive immune system (e.g. immunodeficiency) are at much higher risk for developing serious diseases. However, immunity is a much bigger deal than just a defense against microbes. We now know that it directly affects our brains and changes the way we interact with the world. Now consider that up to 70% of our immune cells actually live in the gut. Why is this the case? One of the most important functions of our immune system is to interpret messages from the outside world for our bodies and our brains. It is also tasked with keeping out the things that might harm our bodies, and letting in those that are good for us. The gut represents one of the biggest interfaces between the inside of our bodies and our environment. It makes sense that our immune system has set up its largest base of operations in this location.
Our billions of gut immune cells have a difficult task. They have to convert information from the outside world into signals that our bodies can understand. Many of these messages are sent directly to our brains. How does this work? Every day when we eat, our digested food comes into contact with the gut lining. Our gut immune cells sample and learn from this food and share this message with the rest of the body. Additionally, these cells learn from the gut microbiome, the collection of trillions of microbes that live inside our gut. The combination of data from our food and microbes is captured by the gut immune systems and shuttled towards our brains in two major routes.
First, information from the gut immune system can be loaded into the bloodstream, where it can enter the brain through the blood-brain barrier. Immune signals can also reach the brain by way of peripheral nerves like the vagus nerve. On entering the brain, these messages can have a variety of effects. For example, if there is too much inflammation in the gut immune system, inflammatory immune signals may reach the central nervous system and alter brain function. This unhealthy inflammatory cascade has been linked to conditions like depression and anxiety. In fact, drugs targeting this very system have shown a positive effect in some types of depression.
Increasing evidence also suggests that the local communication between our gut microbes and gut immune system is a major driving force in health and disease. Recent research demonstrates the link between conditions like anxiety and depression and alterations in our gut microbiome. And while we’ve known that the gut microbiome plays a major role in shaping our immune systems, we now understand that the opposite is also true. Our gut immune cells appear to both keep out bad bugs and nurture the good microbes that are key to our physical and mental wellbeing. So, what are the steps you can take to improve your gut immune system today? First, you need to appreciate that “boosting” immunity is a bad plan. Instead, you should seek a more balanced immune function. This can be achieved by eating more whole foods, and avoiding highly processed foods like refined carbohydrates. Consuming a range of phytonutrient-rich foods may also help. These include teas, cruciferous vegetables, mushrooms, and dark leafy green plants. You can also support better immune function by using stress-lowering interventions, getting adequate exercise, and prioritizing sleep.”
The gut-brain connection and mental health
J. Discovery Oct 12, 2020, 19:24 Editorial by Narayani Ganesh
“A documentary that looks at how everything is closely connected has an episode on poop, tracing its journey from the human body to its place of final disposal. Interestingly, the narrator-reporter, talking to the person in-charge of the sewage disposal unit in London, remarks excitedly that this unit with its myriad pipes and canals was actually an extension of the human alimentary canal! From here, it journeys on in more canals and pipes to its final destination. And in the process, all poops become free of identities, merging as one. Including those of queen and commoner. That’s a metaphysical view, so to speak. Amazingly, between the alimentary canal and the brain, a lot of stuff goes on. Sometimes our emotions and behaviour may be orchestrated by trillions of bacteria that reside in those winding tracts, propelling us to be what we are. The term ‘gut feeling’ comes from here, perhaps, and our intuition is likely collective messages bombarded by these little fellas who make up our intricate microbiome web. That gut bacteria impact the brain and influence the mind is no longer fringe theory.
Experts are testing psychobiotics as mental health remedies, reports Elizabeth Svoboda in Discover magazine, as gut bacteria may cause or aggravate anxiety. You also have ‘mood probiotics’, gut bacterial strains engineered to help you deal with anxiety and depression. The converse is also true; good bacteria improves our overall health, and make possible mind-body balance. Scientists are trying to create “new bacteria-based therapies that could expand a mental health treatment landscape,” that is sorely in need of fresh breakthroughs. That queasy feeling in the tummy before an interview or examination, the butterflies in your stomach when you are on stage, emotions that impede bowel movement and more such indications reveal the intimate gut-brain-mind connection.
Traditional healing systems including India’s Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine, ancient Chinese medicine and tribal remedies, all give great importance to what we put into our stomachs and what we feed our minds. Hippocrates is believed to have said, “All disease begins in the gut.” A Chinese proverb says, “There is no difference between food and medicine.” Buddhism promotes compassion and altruism plus mindful eating.
Writes Svoboda, “Bacterial cells outnumber human cells in the body by a factor of at least 1.3 to 1. The human gut plays host to more than 100 trillion of these bacteria — a complex, interdependent microbial universe wedged between your ribcage and spine.”
Ninety percent of the serotonin in the body — hormone that contributes to happy moods and wellbeing — is produced by gut-bacteria. Hence it is vital to eat and drink whatever will help gut bacteria keep the serotonin rolling.
Those with digestive problems and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome may benefit from microbiome-related remedies, say experts. Anil Rajvanshi, director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra, says that there is information flow from gut to brain via the Vagus nerve that interfaces with neurons in the brain and this flow is mostly one-sided. Reverse communication happens in times of distress like stomach ailments, pain and hunger.
According to Rajvanshi, the colon cleansing process of Ayurveda like enema or ‘gut wrenching’ exercises of nauli in Hatha Yoga help in cleaning the gut and increasing the feeling of wellness. In Mayur Asana, the body is balanced on the navel. The pressure stimulates the Vagus nerve, helping improve the brain-gut connection.”
Probiotics: promise, evidence, and hope
J. Gastroenterology 2020;159:409
“The pioneering scientists at the turn of the 20th century recognized the importance of host interactions with its microbiota, but were limited by the technologies of their day. The recent rediscovery of the microbiome leaves little question that these interactions have profound implications for health and disease. The emergence of the probiotics industry in the past 30 years, along with the regulatory designation treating probiotics as dietary supplements, has led to the clinical situation we are now faced with: many products with unsubstantiated or vague claims and confused physicians and consumers. How can we move forward to better provide all of the various stakeholders with products that are properly vetted to have a bona fide impact on human health and disease? With next-generation sequencing technologies, germ-free animal platforms, novel genetic tools, and methods for assaying the functions of communities of microbes, we now have the appropriate technology to provide a scientific basis for probiotic selection. These next-generation probiotics will need to be tested for safety and efficacy in well-designed and properly powered clinical trials. Progress may depend on the ability of lawmakers and the regulatory agencies to develop updated paradigms to evaluate these new products. The rules need to be based on the most up-to-date science, ensure patient access to safe and effective treatments, while encouraging further innovation. Despite the many pitfalls, we expect that next-generation probiotics have an important role in the future of human health and prevention of disease.”
