Medical Revelation

As revealed in my last post, our bodies, particularly our gut (small and large intestines), are host to trillions of microorganisms whose cells outnumber those in are in our body by 10 to 1.  Bacteria make up most of the flora in our gut with about 500 different species, however probably about 99% of the bacteria come from 30 or 40 species - both good and bad. The main function of these bacteria appears to be in the digestion of the food we eat and in preventing the growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria. Actually it is estimated that about 85% of our immune system sits in our gut.

Early research, carried out mainly by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, claims that the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria forms the foundation for good health, both physical and mental. An interview with Dr. McBride reveals her own personal reason for becoming involved in tracing the effects of the gut flora in causing mental illnesses as well as allergies. Her first child, a son, was diagnosed with autism, and the fact that she found a cure not only for him, but also others with similar psychological symptoms, is profoundly convincing.

In researching the subject, I have found it amazing that a child is born sterile and it picks up the microorganisms that will populate its gut first in its passage through the mother’s birth canal and then in the mother’s milk as well as the environment. That nature would leave to chance such an important basis for the child’s health must have had no easy solution and explains why some infants have such a difficult time digesting food in their first few months. However, the bacteria in our digestive tract are very forgiving and usually the good bacteria win out. If not, in my health food store I found a brochure ‘Life Start’ advertising probiotic supplements that can ensure the mother’s optimal health and other products for the new born child - so now help is available for any mother who wishes to be proactive in maintaining and passing on a healthy bacterial system to her baby.

There are many informative interviews and talks on line by Dr. Campbell-McBride and one of her short but convincing videos is very worth viewing because it outlines the factors that damage our gut flora. For someone who suffers from autoimmune or degenerative diseases like Multiple Sclorosis, Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoarthritis, Crohn‟s disease, ulcerative colitis, CFS etc., she has written a book that gives a diet that can reset the bacterial imbalances in your gut and cure your disease.  It is not an easy diet to follow but has been shown to work and she has many collaborators around the world who are trained and working with her methods. 

As I mentioned this has been a personal journey for me having suffered for over a year with severe digestive problems after undergoing a course of antibiotics. After posting the October 28 ‘Fermented Foods’ blog in which I said I was cured, I had a relapse for a day or so but then I felt even better again and have had no further problems.  McBride describes this reaction as a ‘die back’ where the good bacteria become so numerous they are able to kill off a pathogenic colony of bacteria, which then releases its toxins causing the illness symptoms to return temporarily. 

I have only barely touched on the subject of the importance of our gut flora, and its influence on our health. For those with some conditions that are not successfully treated by modern medicine, I’m convinced that their real challenge could well be to identify strategies that help optimize their bacterial population. The aim would be to heal and seal their gut and live happily ever after in a friendly, symbiotic relationship with the trillions of microorganisms that can optimize their health.  Rie

Symbiotic bacteria

When I started doing some research about the bacteria that live in us and on us, I was blown away by the sheer numbers, varieties and power of the microorganisms [living single-celled entities that can only be seen with a microscope] that our bodies harbour. Those who study these bacteria tend to actually begin to wonder about who is in charge, the microbes or us. Their cells outnumber ours by a factor of 10 to 1 – it’s just because they’re smaller than our cells that they only weigh about 4 or 5 pounds altogether. The most amazing revelation is that their DNA produces 3,000,000 genes to our measly 23,000 – that’s over 100 times more genes, the pieces of DNA that code for the molecules that tell our bodies what to do to become us. If you watch the first few minutes by clicking on the video, you’ll really understand what is being discovered! It’s a veritable scientific revolution!

Looking at things from my new perspective after a week of this kind of research …. I understand that our planet formed about 4½ billion years ago, and the first living single celled microorganisms, mostly bacteria, appeared about ½ a billion years later. Then these simplest forms of life spent the next long 3 billion years evolving and learning and communicating until they got nature to help them by coming up with the idea of creating multi-celled creatures that they could inhabit. The bodies of these relatively big creatures acted as a nice warm safe home and and fed them and, in exchange, they did chores like digesting the food their host ate and creating an immune system to keep them healthy. 
The system worked so incredibly well that in the next billion years of evolution lots and lots of multi-celled creatures evolved and they got smarter until we human types came along a couple of hundred thousand years ago with enough brains and scientific know-how to finally, in just the last couple of years, start to figure this all out.  Pretty shocking perspective - but those are the facts.

Looking back at the evolutionary processes again, plants preceded animals because they could absorb the energy of the sun and use it to convert carbon dioxide into solid carbon compounds that allowed them to grow into things like grass or trees or carrots. Then came animals that harboured bacteria in their special stomach that would break down the long chain cellulose fibers that gave plants their structure.  They were herbivores and and they mostly ate grass and leaves. Then evolution marched forward and created carnivores and omnivores like us that could get their energy by eating the herbivores like cows and sheep  and goats. Apparently until humans learned to control fire and cook roots and leaves of plants, they could get almost no nutrition from vegetable matter. Scientists think our hunter gatherer ancestors eating meat and cooked vegetables had it made, they got lots of energy from both and so they could outsmart other creatures and evolved by getting even smarter and bigger brains that made them able to create our modern world.In all this, the bacterial flora we host were fine because up until the 1930’s [in my lifetime] when refrigerators and freezers came along, people managed to keep food from going bad by fermenting it. Fermenting breaks down food and produces lots of good bacteria like those in our intestinal system. The bacteria that digest our food could thrive on the arrangement and so did we and we multiplied.

But then we began to eat strange things like ‘cheesies’ and sugar coated cereals and chocolate bars and lots of convenient junk food that our myriads of bacteria didn't thrive on and so our immune system didn't work well either. Then when some bad bacteria or harmful viruses made us really sick we were given antibiotics that killed off lots of the good bacteria we needed to stay healthy.

The consequences of eating mostly processed food and what to do about it, comes in the next post – if you are still with me after this very broad brush treatment of our evolution and complex symbiotic living systems..    Rie