Research reveals that bacteria may have social structures
similar to plants and animals. Certain bacteria have the ability to produce
chemical compounds that inhibit the growth and/or kill off other bacteria, while
not harming their own kind or closely related microbes that are immune to the
“biological warfare agents” produced
Researchers are increasingly looking at the cascading ill
effects of antibiotic drugs. Fluoroquinolones, a class of fluoridated
antibiotics, are particularly dangerous. Serious side effects include
potentially blinding retinal detachment, kidney failure, permanent tendon
damage, psychotic reactions, and injury to your central nervous system
Optimizing your gut flora includes avoiding sugar/fructose
and processed foods, antibiotics (including conventionally-raised meats),
chlorinated water, antibacterial soaps, agricultural chemicals and pollution.
It’s also wise to reseed your gut with probiotics. Ideally, you’ll want to
include traditionally fermented foods such as fermented vegetables in your diet,
to protect and enhance your beneficial intestinal microflora
Much new research is now emerging on the importance of bacteria – intestinal
bacteria, to be more exact. These are commonly referred to as probiotics, and
are the antithesis to antibiotics, both of which I'll discuss below.
These microscopic critters are also known as your microbiome.
Around 100 trillion of these beneficial bacterial cells populate your body,
particularly your intestines and other parts of your digestive system. In fact,
90 percent of the genetic material in your body is not yours,
but rather that of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that
compose your microflora.
We're now discovering that the composition of this microflora has a
profound impact on your health. For example, we now know that your
intestinal bacteria influence your:
Genetic expression
Immune system
Brain development, mental health, and memory
Weight, and
Risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases, from diabetes to cancer
Certain Gut Microbes Affect Absorption of Dietary Fats
Most recently, a research team that includes Carnegie's Steve Farber and
Juliana Carten has revealed that certain gut microbes increase the absorption of
dietary fats.1 According to the authors:
"Diet-induced alterations in microbiota composition might influence fat
absorption, providing mechanistic insight into how microbiota-diet interactions
regulate host energy balance."
Medical News Today2 recently reported on the
findings, stating:
"Previous studies showed gut microbes aid in the breakdown of complex
carbohydrates, but their role in dietary fat metabolism remained a mystery,
until now... 'This study is the first to demonstrate that microbes can promote
the absorption of dietary fats in the intestine and their subsequent metabolism
in the body,' said senior study author John Rawls of the University of North
Carolina. 'The results underscore the complex relationship between microbes,
diet and host physiology.'"
The bacteria identified as instrumental in increasing fat absorption are
called Firmicutes, which, incidentally, have previously been linked to obesity, as they're found in greater numbers in the
guts of obese subjects. The researchers also found that the abundance of
Firmicutes was influenced by diet. This adds weight to previous research
postulating that gut bacteria can increase your body's ability to absorb fat,
and therefore extract more calories from your food compared to others who have a
different composition of bacteria in their intestines – even when consuming the
same amount of food.
New Research Suggests Bacteria are Social Microorganisms
Three years ago, I posted a TED video featuring Bonnie Bassler, in which she
discusses how bacteria "talk" to each other using a chemical
language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks.
Beware of Fluoridated Antibiotics that Can Ruin Your Gut Flora and Your
Health
Your lifestyle can and does influence your gut flora on a daily basis. All of
these common exposures can wreak havoc on the makeup of bacteria in your gut,
but researchers are now increasingly looking at the cascading ill effects of
antibiotic drugs in particular. For example, your gut bacteria are extremely
sensitive to:
Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution
Antibiotics are severely overused – not just in medicine, but also in food
production. In fact, about 80 percent of all the antibiotics produced are used in agriculture – not
only to fight infection, but to promote unhealthy (though profitable) weight
gain in the animals. Hence, if you want to avoid overexposure to
antibiotics, it's also crucial to avoid conventionally-raised meats.
That said, certain antibiotics prescribed in medicine are so harmful they
probably shouldn't be used at all. Medications such as Avelox, Cipro, and
Levaquin have been named in over 2,000 drug injury lawsuits.5
These are all fluoroquinolones, a class of fluoridated antibiotics
associated with a number of serious side effects, such as potentially blinding
retinal detachment, kidney failure, and permanent tendon damage.
Fluoroquinolones do carry a black box warning for tendonitis, ruptured tendons,
and its potentially detrimental effect on neuromuscular activity, but many
patients simply do not read the warning labels before taking the drug. Other
serious injuries linked to fluoroquinolones include:
Injury to central nervous system
Injury to your heart
Liver problems
Gastrointestinal problems
Injury to musculoskeletal system
Injury to renal system
Injury to visual and/or auditory system
Altered blood sugar metabolism
Depression
Psychotic reactions and hallucinations
Phototoxicity
Disfiguring rashes
Staphylococcus aureus infection
C. difficile infection
Severe diarrhea
Learn More about the Dangers of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics
Shockingly, despite all these risks, fluoroquinolones are one of the most
commonly prescribed classes of antibiotics in the world. John Fratti, who was
hired by the FDA in a part-time position as an FDA Patient Representative for
drug safety, is on a quest to raise awareness on the dangers of fluoroguinolone
toxicity. He filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request with the FDA on two of
the top fluoroquinolones, Levaquin and Cipro, and learned that they are
associated with over 2,500 deaths.
Fratti has established a non-profit organization called Quinolone Vigilance
Foundation to spread awareness of the dangers associated with this class of
drugs, and the Foundation's website contains both information and support for
those injured by these drugs. Fortunately, fluoroquinolones have started getting
some well-deserved media attention as of late.
According to a recent article in The New York Times:6
"A half-dozen fluoroquinolones have been taken off the market because of
unjustifiable risks of adverse effects. Those that remain are undeniably
important drugs, when used appropriately. But doctors at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention have expressed concern that too often fluoroquinolones
are prescribed unnecessarily as a 'one size fits all' remedy without considering
their suitability for different patients.
Experts caution against giving these drugs to certain patients who face
higher than average risks of bad reactions – children under age 18, adults over
60, and pregnant and nursing women – unless there is no effective alternative.
The risk of adverse effects is also higher among people with liver disease and
those taking corticosteroids or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs.
When an antibiotic is prescribed, it is wise to ask what the drug is and
whether it is necessary, what side effects to be alert for, whether there are
effective alternatives, when to expect the diagnosed condition to resolve, and
when to call if something unexpected happens or recovery seems
delayed."
Last year, PBS NewsHour7 aired a segment highlighting
the dangers of fluoroquinolones. Fratti, who is himself a victim of
fluoroquinolone toxicity, was interviewed. He was prescribed Levaquin a few
years ago for a minor bacterial infection. The drug caused nerve damage, tendon
damage and damage to his central nervous system.
This is a Flash-based video and may not be
viewable on mobile devices.
How to Optimize Your Gut Flora
The good news is that positively influencing the bacteria growing in your
body is relatively easy. Aside from reserving antibiotics for serious cases of
infection only, one of the most important steps you can take is to stop
consuming sugary foods. When you eat a healthy diet that is low in sugars and
processed foods, one of the major benefits is that it causes the good bacteria
in your gut to flourish and build up a major defense against the bad bacteria
getting a foothold in your body in the first place.
This is one of the many reasons I highly recommend reducing, with the plan of
eliminating, sugars and most grains from your diet. Following my recently
updated nutrition plan will help you optimize your diet in
a systematic step-by-step fashion. A healthy diet is the ideal way to maintain a
healthy gut, and regularly consuming traditionally fermented or cultured foods
is the easiest way to ensure optimal gut flora. Healthy options include:
Fermented vegetables of all kinds (cabbage,
carrots, kale, collards, celery spiced with herbs like ginger and garlic)
Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Tempeh
Fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NOT commercial
versions, which typically do not have live cultures and are loaded with sugars
that feed pathogenic bacteria
Natto
Kimchee
Just make sure to steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will
destroy many of the naturally-occurring probiotics. For example, most of the
"probiotic" yogurts you find in every grocery store these days are NOT
recommended. Since they're pasteurized, they will be associated with all of the
problems of pasteurized milk products instead. They also
typically contain added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, dyes, and/or
artificial sweeteners; all of which are detrimental to your health.
Consuming traditionally fermented foods will also provide you with the
following added benefits:
Important nutrients: Some fermented foods are excellent
sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin K2, which is important for preventing
arterial plaque buildup and heart disease. Cheese curd, for example, is an
excellent source of both probiotics and vitamin K2. You can also obtain all the
K2 you'll need (about 200 micrograms) by eating 15 grams, or half an ounce, of
natto daily. They are also a potent producer of many B vitamins
Optimizing your immune
system: Probiotics have been shown to modulate
immune responses via your gut's mucosal immune system, and have
anti-inflammatory potential. Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive
system, making a healthy gut a major focal point if you want to maintain optimal
health, as a robust immune system is your number one defense system against ALL
disease
Detoxification:
Fermented foods are some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in
these foods are very potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a wide range of
toxins and heavy metals
Cost effective: Fermented foods can contain 100 times more
probiotics than a supplement, so just adding a small amount of fermented foods
to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck
Natural variety of microflora: As long as you vary the
fermented and cultured foods you eat, you'll get a much wider variety of
beneficial bacteria than you could ever get from a supplement
When you first start out, you'll want to start small, adding as little as
half a tablespoon of fermented vegetables to each meal, and gradually work your
way up to about a quarter to half a cup (2 to 4 oz) of fermented vegetables or
other cultured food with one to three meals per day. Since cultured foods are
efficient detoxifiers, you may experience detox symptoms, or a "healing crisis,"
if you introduce too many at once.
Learn to Make Your Own Fermented Vegetables
Fermented vegetables are easy to make on your own. It's also the most
cost-effective way to get high amounts of healthful probiotics in your diet. To
learn how, review the following interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional
Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods
prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program. In addition to the
wealth of information shared in this interview, I highly recommend
getting the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which provides
all the necessary details for Dr. McBride's GAPS protocol.
Although you can use the native bacteria on cabbage and other vegetables, it
is typically easier to get consistent results by using a starter culture.
Caroline prepares hundreds of quarts of fermented vegetables a week and has
found that she gets great results by using three to four high quality probiotic
capsules to jump start the fermentation process.
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