Annual Microbiome Issue
Most people give up trying to eat healthy because of contradicting information. Take eggs. One year they are OK, but the following year they are not. I am sure you can think of many other examples. What is missing from any discussion on the best diet is the state of your microbiome: it determines what foods you should be eating, and what foods to avoid. However, a plant-based diet is overwhelmingly the best for most people. You could take a test to see what foods are best for you: google VIOME.
Still, any food that is not well tolerated could be consumed AFTER re-balancing your gut bacteria. It can get out of whack with antibiotics, Accutane, acid blocking pills like the Purple Pill, pesticides and many other chemicals in our food and environment. Even living with relatives who have a disturbed microbiome may affect yours adversely. See article below.
Hugo Rodier, MD
First-degree relatives of people with celiac disease may also have the condition
“Reuters (9/23, Mathias) reports research indicates that “first-degree relatives” of people with celiac disease “frequently have the condition, too – often without typical symptoms.” Investigators found that “44% of close relatives who had blood tests for celiac disease turned out to have the condition,” and almost “all of them had atypical symptoms or no symptoms at all.” The findings were published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.”
Comment: remember that food allergies are triggered by our gut bacteria. A gluten allergy may then “jump” over to people we live with. I suspect that healthy people’s microbiomes may also influence their relatives. There must be a tipping point somewhere, meaning that the diet habits of the majority of people at home are likely to influence the others through their microbiomes and their example.
Diet Quality Is Associated with Microbial Diversity and Host Health
J. of Nutrition 2019;149:1489
“Increasing evidence strongly indicates that the gut microbiota plays a crucial role in host health by regulating host metabolism, modulating innate and adaptive immune responses, maintaining gut membrane integrity, and protecting against pathogen invasion. The relation between the microbiota and host is influenced by several factors including diet. Different nutrients influence gut microbiota composition and, in turn, microbiota produce metabolites via the degradation of nutrients that may affect several cellular functions (1, 2). For instance, SCFAs such as butyrate, acetate, and propionate are derived from the bacterial fermentation of dietary fibers, and are involved in energy metabolism, appetite regulation, glucose homeostasis, lipid oxidation, adipogenesis, and gut mucosal integrity.”
Comment: and vise versa. Our gut microbiome determines food cravings and how those foods affects us. See last issue about food allergies.
Gut bacteria in infants born via C-section differs from vaginally born babies’
“Reuters (9/18, Kelland) reports in a study of 600 babies that analyzed 1,600 gut bacteria samples, researchers “found key differences between infants born vaginally and via Caesarean section, offering clues about the development of the human immune system.” The study showed “vaginally born babies got most of their gut bacteria from their mother, but C-section babies did not and had more bacteria linked to the hospital around them.” The findings were published in Nature. HealthDay (9/18, Mozes) reports “the researchers stressed that by age 1, all children, regardless of delivery method, end up having pretty similar gut microbiomes.”
Comment: I believe this is because of the above article and sharing the same diets. But “pretty similar” is not 100% similar—I would like to see a study about C-sections and ear infections. I am guessing there is a higher risk of ear infections, which would trigger many doctors to treat with antibiotics, thereby further disrupting those kids’ gut flora.
Cesarean birth and increased risk of developing autism, attention deficit disorder
“The New York Times (9/23, Klass) reports that a recent meta-analysis published in August in JAMA Network Open “shows an association between cesarean birth and the risk of developing autism or attention deficit disorder.” The meta-analysis “looked at data from 61 previously published studies, which together included more than 20 million deliveries, and found that birth by cesarean section was associated with a 33 percent higher risk of autism and a 17 percent higher risk of attention deficit disorder.”
Comment: I am sure you have been reading about the Brain-Gut connection. Now you take it from here.
The nutritional environment determines which and how intestinal stem cells contribute to homeostasis and tumorigenesis
J. Carcinogenesis 2019;40:937A
“Western-style purified diet has profound and differential effects on Lgr5hi and Bmi1+ intestinal stem cells involving their transcriptional reprogramming and mutation accumulation. This results in reduced Lgr5hi cell and augmented Bmi1+ cell contribution to mucosal homeostasis and tumorigenesis.” Comment: allow me to translate. Your microbiome plays a role in health and cancer. It is up to us to keep or gut bacteria well nourished with lots of veggies.
The Evolution of the Use of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation and Emerging Therapeutic Indications.
J. Lancet 2019;394:420
“Developments in high-throughput microbial genomic sequencing and other systems biology techniques have given novel insight into the potential contribution of the gut microbiota to health and disease. As a result, an increasing number of diseases have been characterized by distinctive changes in the composition and functionality of the gut microbiota; however, whether such changes are cause, consequence, or incidental to the disease in question remains largely uncertain. Restoration of the gut microbiota to a premorbid state is a key novel therapeutic approach of interest, and fecal microbiota transplantation—the transfer of prescreened stool from healthy donors into the gastrointestinal tract of patients—is gaining increasing importance in both the clinical and research settings. At present, fecal microbiota transplantation is only recommended in the treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection, although a large number of trials are ongoing worldwide exploring other potential therapeutic indications.” Comment: I believe fecal transplantation will soon be approved for ALL medical problems.
Research finds consuming sugary, diet soft drinks tied to higher mortality risk
“Newsweek (9/3, Gander) reports a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests “both sugary and diet soft drinks have been linked to an increased risk of death.” The research, which included over 450,000 Europeans studied over an average of 16 years, found “participants who drank a lot of soft drinks were at a greater risk of death by any cause compared with those who drank the lowest amounts.” CNN (9/3, Lamotte) reports the study “found those who drank two or more glasses of any type of soda a day had a higher risk of dying from any cause of death than people who drank less than a glass each month.” Furthermore, the investigators “found men and women who drank two or more glasses a day of sugar-sweetened soft drinks had a higher risk of dying from digestive disorders, while those who drank the same amount of diet drinks had higher risks of dying from cardiovascular disease.”
Comment: why? Because those foods alter our microbiome; it then generates more inflammation, which is at the root of most diseases, if not all.
Antibiotics-Driven Gut Microbiome Perturbation Alters Immunity to Vaccines
J. Cell 2019;178:1313
“Emerging evidence indicates a central role for the microbiome in immunity. However, causal evidence in humans is sparse. Here, we administered broad-spectrum antibiotics to healthy adults prior and subsequent to seasonal influenza vaccination. Despite a 10,000-fold reduction in gut bacterial load and long-lasting diminution in bacterial diversity, antibody responses were not significantly affected. However, in a second trial of subjects with low pre-existing antibody titers, there was significant impairment in H1N1-specific neutralization and binding IgG1 and IgA responses. In addition, in both studies antibiotics treatment resulted in (1) enhanced inflammatory signatures (including AP-1/NR4A expression), observed previously in the elderly, and increased dendritic cell activation; (2) divergent metabolic trajectories, with a 1,000-fold reduction in serum secondary bile acids, which was highly correlated with AP-1/NR4A signaling and inflammasome activation. Multi-omics integration revealed significant associations between bacterial species and metabolic phenotypes, highlighting a key role for the microbiome in modulating human immunity.”
Comment: remember that our microbiome is 2/3 of our immune system. How you react to a vaccine depends of the status of your immune system.
Host-Microbiome-Drug-Nutrient Screen Identifies Bacterial Effectors of Metformin Therapy.
J. Cell 2019;178:1299
“Metformin is the first-line therapy for treating type 2 diabetes and a promising anti-aging drug. We set out to address the fundamental question of how gut microbes and nutrition, key regulators of host physiology, affect the effects of metformin. Combining two tractable genetic models, the bacterium E. coliand the nematode C. elegans, we developed a high-throughput four-way screen to define the underlying host-microbe-drug-nutrient interactions. We show that microbes integrate cues from metformin and the diet through the phosphotransferase signaling pathway that converges on the transcriptional regulator Crp. A detailed experimental characterization of metformin effects downstream of Crp in combination with metabolic modeling of the microbiota in metformin-treated type 2 diabetic patients predicts the production of microbial agmatine, a regulator of metformin effects on host lipid metabolism and lifespan. Our high-throughput screening platform paves the way for identifying exploitable drug-nutrient-microbiome interactions to improve host health and longevity through targeted microbiome therapies.”
Comment: the authors focus on the anti-aging effects of nutrients and certain drugs like Metformin. They make it clear that their effects are through our microbiome. If you wish to know more, google POSTBIOTICS. In short, any substance you put in your mouth, whether it be a nutrient, a drug, or a chemical, will be positively or negatively processed by our gut bacteria. Postbiotics are the ultimate results of such process. In other words, nutrients and drugs affect each of us differently, according to our microbiome. If you want good postbiotics to live longer, eat your veggies.
