Continued from last Friday!
Any given neighborhood depends not only on its residents but also on the environment where they reside. Humans provide some partially understood infrastructure for the microbiome through a variety of genes like NOD2, IL23R, ATG16I, and IGRM. These genes both prepare hospitable homes for good bacteria and modulate how our bodies respond to both good and bad guys. However, more important than these genes, dietary factors likely serve as the greatest factor setting up the neighborhood. Choices regarding carbs, fiber, fats, and protein each influence which bacteria choose to live in our gut on a long term basis. Once a neighborhood gets started during infancy, a lasting impact remains for life based on factors such as whether one enters the world by C section or by vaginal delivery. Later in life antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors, and vaccines may run off the good neighbors. Personal hygiene, whether good or bad, also influences which new neighbors may immigrate from the outside to the inside. The nature versus nature debate continues here between this genetic infrastructure and the lifestyle environmental choices.
What do we call a gut bacteria neighborhood that has gone bad? Dysbiosis: implying that an imbalance between good guys and bad guys has occurred or that the good guy bacteria moved outside their normal real estate into areas that were not good for their human host. Ultimately it is about relationship. The relationships of human and bacterial neighbors affect both sides of the fence. When we choose fast food over fiber or down some antibiotics, the bacteria respond by either moving out, dying off, or by the bad guys throwing a party. When bad guys, like too much yeast or inflammatory (bad) bacteria, throw a party, we feel bad. Sometimes it is brain fog. Sometimes its skin rashes. Sometimes its diarrhea. Regardless, the relationship between us and our bacteria impact our lives.
Lets meet some other gut neighbors besides bacteria. Medical research, mostly due to newer testing procedures has revealed a number of neighbors. First, it uncovered all the hundreds of bacterial species through DNA testing. Then this DNA based genetic testing shed light on the trillions of viruses against gut bacteria that are floating around in our colon as well. Improved testing next revealed a number of parasites and fungi that we are still not sure to consider bad guys or good guys. Some parasites can always be considered on the most wanted list, but others behave themselves for one person yet misbehave in others. Some parasites may even be a quirky, yet beneficial neighbor. Never a simple answer, functional doctors must use their clinical expertise to determine which parasite deserves pardon and which deserves conviction for breaking the homeowner’s association regulations in any given patient.
Good neighbors deserve a knock on the door with a tin of cookies in hand. For the health producing bacterial neighbors, these cookies should be made from pre-biotics. Prebiotics, basically food or fertilizer for the good guys, serve as a 3 course meal growing our good neighbors so they can return the favors in metabolic production. Fiber of various sorts tops the list, but resistant starches make them pretty happy as well. Fiber includes more than chalky powders in the pharmacy constipation aisle. More appetizing are those salad greens, fibrous fruits, various veggies, and randomly named roots which serve as pre-biotics. Keeping our neighbors happy serves to keep ourselves happy. Functional medicine consistently encourages its patients to feed their microbiome neighbors.
When a gut neighborhood gets ugly, sometimes forced resettlement becomes necessary. While the prebiotics noted earlier serves as a critical foundation, dropping down some good guys in one form or another often speeds up a repopulation effort. Ideally, fermented foods, such as yogurt, kombucha, pickled veggies, and the like would provide a daily influx of good guys. For some people, a more strategic approach requires probiotic capsules or mixes. These encapsulated good guys, cultivated by some nutraceutical company in a far way broth, deliver a measured and precise dose of specific bacterial strains tested by research. Although, in general, the broad-spectrum approach of foods as medicine serves the gut better and longer, occasional periods of formulated capsules may address specific needs. For example, Saccharmyces boullardii, a friendly yeast, may push out Candida, a less friendly yeast critter. Certain lactobacillus in capsule form may lighten depressed moods while other bacteria mixes address inflammation of Crohn’s disease. A wise functional medicine doctor knows which therapy best balances each person’s neighborhood.
All this neighborly discussion deserves sharing with a human neighbor. Besides a tin of cookies (gluten free, of course), share some health wisdom that will benefit beyond the cookies. Changing the future of our health through nurturing a friendly gut bacterial neighborhood begins with our own choices. It can then spread to our families and even our neighbors if we take the time to be a good functional health neighbor. Help others live a healthier, more abundant life. Let Sanctuary know how we can be a part of that journey.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
