GUT HEALTH - how to fight dysbiosis

Importance of gut health in homeostasis. Dysbiosis treatment

In our digestive tract live trillions of microorganisms. In recent years, scientific interest has been directed at this incredible dynamic ecosystem and what role is playing in our health. Usually, microbiome forms 2 or more kg of our body weight of adult person, which is considered an organ system.

 

Gut flora functions:

undigested carbohydrates are fermented to produce short-chain fatty acids
vit K is synthesized by gut flora, which can help with blood clotting and is critical to tissue repair after surgery

Vit B7-biotin is also synthetised by gut flora

gut flora neutralizes and removes toxins and potential carcinogens
absorption of vitamins is increased by gut flora
bile acids are metabolised by gut flora
drugs and herbs are metabolised by gut flora
cell growth is stimulated by gut flora
by contributing to gut wall integrity provides defence against some disease
reduces counts of damaging bacteria, increase gut water absorption and stimulates growth of indigenous bacteria

short-chain fatty acids produced by the bacterial fermentation of plant fibers in the gut also reduce faecal pH, which is a marker colonic health and reduced risk of colon cancer

 

Recent research showing that it gut microbiome comprises an essential part of our immune system; performing vital role in preventing and fighting infection, and some new research also mentioning combating allergies and playing large role in switching on or off auto-immune diseases.

Gut microbiota interacts and modulates HPA axis (hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal axis) what means that microbiome may be regarded as an endocrine organ. Microbes co-evolved with an influence on the human immune system, but between gut microbiota and the immune system there is a cross-connection and the immune system also helps to regulate the gut flora.


There is evidence to support that disturbances in the bacterial microbiota result in dysregulation of adaptive immune cells, and this may be resulted in disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease. Following that there is possibility that mammalian immune system, which seems to be designed to control microorganisms, is in fact controlled by microorganisms.

 

Human Microbiota establishing at early stage of life. Birth and early days of life have influence on establishing microbiota. Eczema in kids has been proven to have connection with altered microbiota. It has been proven also that an absence of microbiota or microbiome depletion can account for many digestive symptoms such as those found by sufferers of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). Microbiome and gut function play a vital role in hormone homeostasis, because hormones are conjugated and excreted via the gut, the. Connections has been found also between microbiome depletion and brain diseases such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, allergies, obesity, auto-immune disorders, and cancer development and lowered cancer survival rates.

Diversity in our diet is very important and plays a significant role in healthy gut.
Non-refined, plant-based diets with fibre, particularly soluble fibre, provide substrates for intestinal microbial metabolism.

Consumption of genetically modified foods, alter the character of the beneficial bacteria in the intestine.

What we eat affects our metabolism and microbiome balance. Our microbiome
interacts with our metabolites, shaping a complex interacting network having direct effect on our body.


Many traditions of herbal medicine established that long standing idea that whole body is seen as a functioning ecosystem, interacting in a dynamic way with our body's cells, tissues and organs. Research done on microbiome support that view.

 

Microbiome complex of the large intestine plays a pivotal role in the regulation of endocrine, metabolic, and immune functions. It is involved in the modulation of multiple neurochemical pathways through the highly interconnected gut-brain axis and is the source of most of the serotonin our bodies use to govern our mood and mind.

As results of explosions research into the microbiome and its role in health and disease, increased number use of faecal transplants has been reported; faecal transplants are now standard in cases of Clostridium difficile infection.

 

Healthy gut activates dietary constituents which help keep us healthy. Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, kale, and cabbage) contain glucosinolates that ferment in the gut into isothiocyanates, sulphur-rich compounds that are strongly anticancer and support liver detoxification of various carcinogens. Meadowsweet and Willow and contain salicylates that partially ferment in the gut into salicylic acid, which has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects.

The short-chain fatty acids produced by gut propionic, acetic and chiefly butyric acids provide fuel for cells lining the colon. They also stimulate colonic blood flow, increase muscle activity of the gut, and reverse the atrophy associated with fiber-poor diets. This is an essential fuel for cells lining the colon.

 

 

Microbiome DYSBIOSIS

Dysbiosis damages our health in several characteristic ways:
- the immune system has to continually fight against the unwanted intruders
- dysbiotic organisms leach away the nutrition from our food
- substances such as entero-toxins, fungal spores and mycobacterial fragments get absorbed into the body, causing toxic stress

 

Dysbiosis is immediately obvious when a person gets an acute infection in their gut because it typically causes a sudden, profound disruption in the form of vomiting, diarrhoea, fever etc.

However, in many cases, especially when the infection becomes chronic and the body gives up trying to violently expel the invader with vomiting or diarrhoea, the problem develops more widespread effects.

The classic and most prevalent effect of dysbiosis is an uncomfortable feeling of pressure, swelling and bloating in the gut that doesn't only happen after eating too much or eating certain foods.

Most people with dysbiosis also get some degree of disordered bowel function in the form of loose stools, increased frequency or urgency in going to the toilet. Most report suffering from significantly more malodorous gas than usual.

People with chronic dysbiosis nearly always feel at least somewhat fatigued and 'out-of-sorts', especially when their bloating is at its worst. They often report higher than usual level of aches and pains (it has been well established that dysbiosis can be a major driver of chronic inflammation)

The successful diagnosis and treatment of dysbiosis has been seen to be the turning point in many people's health however, our first major challenge in this area, is that there are several other common health conditions that can give much the same kind of symptoms as those described above. Therefore, before focusing on dysbiosis as a certain issue, it can be wise to at least consider three other possible causes:

 

1.Gastritis. If you have some or all the symptoms described above but you also get reflux in the form of discomfort and pain just under your ribcage, especially on the left side, or a bad taste rising into your throat or mouth, or a chronic cough with no obvious cause, then it is entirely possible that your real issue is gastritis

2.Food allergy or intolerance. Food allergy or intolerance can present very similarly to dysbiosis because of the same inflammatory response from the immune system to something in the gut that it sees as unwanted.

However, in the case of allergy or intolerance, there is usually a history of digestive system problems going back much further, even into childhood, and there are usually other red flags for this such as a history of eczema, asthma, hay fever or migraine.

If this sounds like you, then the best path to sort your health out may be to start with an elimination diet of gluten and/or dairy products, or by looking into some food allergy tests that use blood as the diagnostic medium.

3.IBS or irritable bowel syndrome usually starts in the late teens or early twenties and, whilst bloating and disturbed bowel function etc. are also highly likely, there is usually a much stronger correlation to stress as the primary contributor.

IBS is a label that gets used way too often as a kind of catch-all when the real issue is something quite different that just hasn't been diagnosed properly however, if you have the hallmark symptom of your gut problems starting in your late teens or early twenties, then consider IBS as a real possibility

 

Below shared symptoms of food allergy, dysbiosis, IBS and gastritis

Nausea

Diarrhoea

Constipation

Bloating

Flatulence

Bowel changes

Abdominal pain

Faecal urgency

Sleep problems

Lack of energy

 

Holistic approach to treatment of dysbiosis

weeding, seeding, and feeding

"weeding, seeding, and feeding” phrase has been very popular across Herbalists and other holistic practitioners.
Is describing holistic approach to optimizing the gut health. This means removing disease-causing bacteria or yeasts, replenishing the beneficial bacteria and yeasts, and then providing appropriate "food" for them to flourish and thrive. Whether or not an individual has actual bowel parasites, it is highly possible that most people have some degree of imbalance in their gut bacteria also known as dysbiosis from a lifetime of eating foods low in fiber and taking antibiotics.

 

Weeding, this means reducing the population of pathogenic intestinal microorganisms. If there are symptoms of possible parasitic bowel infection stool testing its good idea to start, it may need to be done twice before right results will show. If intestinal parasites are diagnosed, then cycles of the "Weeding" Protocol may be required for 6-12 weeks. A good way to understand dysbiosis is to think of this space as being like a large lawn which has been over-run by unhealthy weeds, insects, fungi etc. In this case the first thing you must do is kill off the weeds, fungi etc. and then after that you can successfully plant new seeds to help regrow a healthy lawn. Dysbiosis can be a difficult problem to cure; whatever kind of 'bad-life' is in there you can be sure it won't want to leave so you must be prepared to give it a hard push to get out. Fortunately, there are three substances that no bacteria, parasite or fungi has learned how to resist despite thousands of years of their continual use in humans: Garlic, Nigella and Wormwood.

 

Garlic

Dosage is crucial in herbal medicine. Regular amounts of fresh garlic in the diet will help prevent gut infections but to kill off a well-established dysbiosis you need a lot more than the regular amounts normally found in food, plus it needs to be raw!

A therapeutic dose to weed out dysbiosis is 4-6 medium sized cloves at a time. This number of Garlic is best taken with food at either lunch or dinner time and it is best to do the garlic onslaught at least two times a week but not more than three times a week, length of time to properly do this treatment with Garlic is at least 6 weeks but be prepared to do extra weeks if you obviously improve on the treatment but start getting worse again when you stop. Parasites, in whatever form they come, are true survivors; you must be prepared to keep making their home a most uncomfortable place to be until they finally give up and go for good.

If you are not clearly responding to the treatment within 3 or 4 weeks, then you should stop and pause for thought; because it may well be that the root of the problem may not dysbiosis but rather something quite different as discussed earlier.

How to best take the Garlic is entirely up to you. So long as you get it into you 2 or 3 times a week it will do its work in making your gut an extremely inhospitable place to be a bad bug. Some people simply peel the cloves of garlic then chop them into small pieces and swallow them like little pills with plenty of water. Mixing the freshly peeled and cut garlic into dish can make it a more pleasant experience but remember that you must not heat the garlic before eating it.

 

Wormwood

The second great herb for dysbiosis is Wormwood, it has proven to be exceptionally helpful at clearing out stubborn gut infections. Even the worst of the worst cases, e.g. patients with medically diagnosed drug-resistant gut infections, almost always seen to eventually respond to Wormwood. The downside to Wormwood is that it is an incredibly hard herb to take in tea or tincture form because of its remarkably bitter taste and cannot be sweetened to achieve medicinal actions. Infusion 5-7g, drink on empty stomach in 2-3 portion during day, tincture 1:5, 45% 2 ml, 3 times a day on empty stomach, powder 5-10g on empty stomach, it can be encapsulated. 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, repeat until stool tests show no more parasites

 

Nigella

Third great herb for dysbiosis is Nigella sativa, very powerful antimicrobial. If you have oil press, create your own oil, if you don’t try to find oil presses where you can buy fresh unfiltered Nigella oil. Filtered, mostly available in grocery shops is useless and wont work, also freshness is very important. If you don’t have access to any of that use seeds, powder them in coffee grinder and use 1 tablespoon on empty stomach, first thing at the morning. If you manage to get oil use 1 tablespoon, you can also encapsulate nigella oil. 2 weeks on 2 weeks off repeat until stool tests show no more parasites.

Die-Off Reactions

You need to know that, after a few days of either Garlic, Nigella or Wormwood, assuming you really do have dysbiosis, you are likely to get some die-off reactions.

This process, called 'Herxheimer reactions', can make you feel quite seedy for a few days. How much it happens varies a lot between different people, but people typically talk about having felt super tired, or how they felt like they had a flu with random aches and pains, or how their bowel got even more upset for a time.

Also note that if any of this happens the first one or two times you take Garlic, Nigella or Wormwood then it may be that these medicines are too strong for your system at those doses and you either need to reduce the dose or consider taking them in another way, e.g. chopping the raw Garlic into a soup so it is better able to be digested. Encapsulating wormwood or Nigella.

However, if you are ok for the first few days but then you suddenly start getting die-off reactions, then be encouraged that this probably means you are on the right track and that you should just hang in there!

Things usually do get better after a short while, and then it is usually noticeable that the person's health starts to significantly improve, especially as their immune system begins to register that it is finally winning against a parasites it knows all too well but could not get on top of by itself.

 

Seeding. This enhances the population of beneficial intestinal microorganisms by encouraging growth of the population already existing in the body and providing a supplemental population if necessary. The following are ways to introduce and support beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Probiotics, fermented beverages, such as kombucha, kefir and other fermented non-alcoholic drinks; fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, salsa, miso, natto, and tempeh; unpasteurized (live) apple cider vinegar and live yogurt

Probiotic supplements. Aim for 50 billion live bacteria twice daily. The exact range of species recommended may be informed by stool analysis that can look for the dozen or so strains that are predominant, but there are at least several hundred in real life, and only a handful are available in a capsule Use as wide a range of species as possible, and a high dose, and also a beneficial commensal yeast supplement, such as Saccharomyces boulardi.

Proving your probiotic powder/capsules

Ingredients

1/2 tsp of probiotic powder or 1 probiotic capsule that has been opened and the powder sprinkled on to a spoon

1 cup of milk, cow's or goat's milk is best for this but soy milk is also ok

2 small trays or containers that have been sterilised by pouring boiling water over them.. No close fitting lids should be used but you will want to cover them with something,  

Instructions

Pour the milk in equal portions into the two containers

Stir the probiotic powder into the milk in just one of the containers

Place both containers in a warm place, such as a kitchen bench that gets some sunlight, cover them with something, e.g. muslin cloth, or a paper towel, and leave for sufficient time for the bacteria to start eating the milk sugars and reproducing themselves many times over. The time for this can considerably vary according to the room temperature, the milk and, of course the viability of the bacteria. It is suggested to regularly check it every 8 hours or so. You should get a clear and obvious reaction within at least 48 hours

The container that had the half cup of milk in should not thicken to any real extent within 2 days so long as the container was clean and is kept covered.
The container with the probiotic stirred into it should obviously start to thicken, and the thicker the better!

Good, viable probiotic bugs do not take long to rapidly repopulate themselves when they have a rich source of food, such as the milk. If you cannot tell much difference between the two containers, then you have either a dead or largely useless probiotic. This happens more than you might think, poor refrigeration during shipping and handling being the main reason.

 

Feeding. This provides the complex polysaccharides and high-fiber diet that is food for beneficial gut flora, supporting fermentation pathways and making short-chain fatty acids (notably butyric acid). Include the following.

Prebiotics and fructo-oligosaccharides found in starchy (roots) and non-starchy vegetables and certain fruits such as organic berries (unless you have a problem digesting fructose)

Resistant starch. This type of starch found in high quantities in rice, corn, oats, pearl barley, potatoes, green bananas (plantains), and most lentils, beans, and legumes is not digested into small sugars for absorption as other carbohydrates are. Instead, it passes through the small intestines without being broken down, until it reaches the large intestine, where it is used as fuel by the bacteria of the microbiome for fermentation. Resistant starch can also contribute to feelings of fullness and satiety and thus limit calorie intake. Start with small amounts and build up over time.

Some herbs specifically indicated to promote an optimal bowel environment and microbiome balance include burdock root, turmeric, garlic, artichoke leaf, and dandelion root. Interestingly, garlic, which we know as a potent antibiotic for infections, is also a probiotic in the gut, probably because of the large amount of fructans that ferment to feed the beneficial gut flora, Garlic also contribute to gas when we eat a lot of it.

Resistant starch-fiber that passes through the colon without being broken down and absorbed by the body-increases faecal weight, treats and prevents constipation, and lowers the risk of colon cancer.

There's no official recommended daily allowance or other standardized recommendation for the intake of resistant starch. Most Americans eat around 5 g each day. Europeans get 3 to 6 g, and people in China average almost 15 g. Because resistant starch is fermented quite slowly, it can be taken at reasonably high doses if you work up to it, and with less gas production than other fibers. In studies, doses of 20-40 g have been well tolerated.

Interesting about resistant starch is that it becomes even less digestible, and
hence even better for the microbiome, after being cooked and cooled. Upon cooling there is a process of rehydration that causes the starch to thicken and set (think cold pasta or oatmeal) and makes the fibers even more resistant. Reheating the food is fine, meaning you can cook enough for 2 or 3 days in one pot and reheat it as needed each day.

 

Many people can cure their dysbiosis and prevent it coming back by occasionally having some raw Garlic in their diet and by having a reasonable number of fermented foods or perhaps a supplement containing good bacteria to keep the gut healthy.

One last point is that if you find that you get much better with using this approach, then get worse soon after you finished treatment, then it your core problem may be immune system, which is not healthy enough to keep the parasites away by itself. In that case have a close look at your immune health.

 

ATTENTION: All material provided on this website is for informational or educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of your healthcare professional or physician