The Neighborhood does not do well when it is on fire.
In our last neighborhood report, we uncovered the truth behind the myriad of neighbors in our gut. In fact, the research now reveals that we journey through life with more bacteria neighbors in just our gut than the number of cells in our entire body. Further, these bacteria and their chosen human maintain community interdependence through a variety of pathways. Utilizing a host of studies, functional medicine MD’s not only acknowledge this cooperative community but understand that inflammatory pathway interactions between community members adversely affect overall health. As fire spoils a neighborhood so inflammation mars the gut. Several factors influence the impact of inflammation on the gut community. Though responses vary, both human and microbial neighbors will react to the heat. Since gut bacteria and their humans inherently require each other, inflamed gut pathways lead to impaired health of the entire human body.
Inflammation arises from interactions along the various pathways between our microbial neighbors and our immune system. Sometimes they get along helping each other and everything remains cool and under control. However, when disruptive microbial neighbors attempt to commandeer these pathways, the system becomes overheated and begins to flare up. INFLAMMATION ensues! Each side spews out chemicals leading first to sparks and then to flames. The disruptive bad bacteria’s arsenal includes lipopolysaccharide (LPS) which revs up the immune system both locally and systemically. But that’s not all. These bad bacteria have a broad range of other byproducts which may fire up the gut further and inadvertently lead to leaky gut (more later). But wait, the bad guys and the inflammation they engender is only the beginning of the problem.
The problem gets bigger over time. When the human immune system catches wind of these bad bacteria and their fiery triggers, it pours out oxidative inflammation aimed to kill the bad guys. Sparks and flames! Unfortunately, when the neighborhood is on fire due to enemy infiltration, the innocent in the community often suffer with the rest. Just like any other attack, peaceful bystanders often find themselves in the cross fire between oxidative inflammation from the human host and the invading menace bacteria working to take over the new neighborhood. The good bacteria community members get burnt by both sides. They either pack up and leave in a hurry or begin the inevitable die off from the smoke and flames in the neighborhood. Things just are not community friendly any longer.
But the casualties continue to increase as the fire goes from a two-alarm to a four-alarm situation. Human local gut cells begin to feel the heat as well. As the heat goes up, they lose their mucous layer guard unable to keep up their defenses. Like the good bacteria, these human host gut cells begin to die off. The community is changing. As the situation progresses unchecked, fires burn at the microscopic level but often progress to visible changes in the gut lining- changes like redness and ulcers -sure signs of inflammation. The once peaceful community has vanished and left fires burning along multiple pathways and avenues. Things are not getting better on their own.
Now, these fires obviously alter the community in profound ways. The resulting neighborhood landscape depends upon the particular damage caused and the particular pattern of the burn. Diverse communities are reshaped in diverse ways. One thing can be said for certain: none of the burn patterns lead to a perfectly peaceful existence. The Functional MD is tasked with applying their knowledge to the care of the individual in returning the community to a peaceful co-existence and the human host to a state of health. The fire pattern must be determined and steps taken to extinguish inflammation and its damaging effects.
For many, the burning of inflammation develops into leaky gut. The fire is ignited by one or more of the following: food allergens, histamine, gluten breakdown, and viral or bacterial inflammation. Then, the leaky gut burn pattern begins when chemical signals are released from allergenic or regular inflammation leading to landscape reshaping of the gut. That reshaping occurs when the fire creeps in between the gut lining cells loosening their grip on each other. Once the gut lining cells begin to unlock and the fire seeps between the cracks, the doors open wider for this inflammation to delve deeper into the walls of the gut. The landscape is changing. New pathways within the gut lining do not bode well for the human host. Left unchecked, the fire sweeps through the new pathways and spreads to other parts of the body. Both inflammatory antigens and inflammatory chemicals from the gut bacteria have made their way into the entire body via the bloodstream. Leaky gut allows inflammation to ignite the wider body landscape.
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.
