Flourish book by Martin Seligman

 

On my nightstand is another great book written by the iconic Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology. I'll be reviewing the book in the next couple of posts. Below is the review online:

AZ: Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the guru of the "positive psychology" movement, abandons his previous emphasis on happiness, which he now views as simplistic, to examine how individuals might achieve a richer, multilayered goal: a life of well-being. He identifies four factors that can help individuals thrive: positive emotion, engagement with what one is doing, a sense of accomplishment, and good relationships. Those expecting a guide on how to achieve these goals will be disappointed; Seligman's approach is largely conceptual and empirical, although he has some useful things to say, such as how even soldiers with PTSD can be taught resilience to recover and even grow from their traumas, and how students of all ages can be taught focus, delayed gratification, and GRIT, a combination of drive and perseverance. But Seligman includes too much on the mechanics of conducting his studies. Also, he can be self-congratulatory regarding his own theory, and harsh and reductionist on traditional treatments ("psychology-as-usual—the psychology of victims and negative emotions and alienation and pathology and tragedy"). This is a potentially important book whose impact may be limited by its flaws

Goodreads: “This book will help you flourish.” With this unprecedented promise, internationally esteemed psychologist Martin Seligman begins Flourish, his first book in ten years—and the first to present his dynamic new concept of what well-being really is. Traditionally, the goal of psychology has been to relieve human suffering, but the goal of the Positive Psychology movement, which Dr. Seligman has led for fifteen years, is different—it’s about actually raising the bar for the human condition. Flourish builds on Dr. Seligman’s game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life—for individuals, for communities, and for nations. In a fascinating evolution of thought and practice, Flourish refines what Positive Psychology is all about. While certainly a part of well-being, happiness alone doesn’t give life meaning. Seligman now asks, What is it that enables you to cultivate your talents, to build deep, lasting relationships with others, to feel pleasure, and to contribute meaningfully to the world? In a word, what is it that allows you to flourish? “Well-being” takes the stage front and center, and Happiness (or Positive Emotion) becomes one of the five pillars of Positive Psychology, along with Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—or PERMA, the permanent building blocks for a life of profound fulfillment. Thought-provoking in its implications for education, economics, therapy, medicine, and public policy—the very fabric of society—Flourish tells inspiring stories of Positive Psychology in action, including how the entire U.S. Army is now trained in emotional resilience; how innovative schools can educate for fulfillment in life and not just for workplace success; and how corporations can improve performance at the same time as they raise employee well-being. With interactive exercises to help readers explore their own attitudes and aims, Flourish is a watershed in the understanding of happiness as well as a tool for getting the most out of life. On the cutting edge of a science that has changed millions of lives, Dr. Seligman now creates the ultimate extension and capstone of his bestselling classics, Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism

Great read, no?

@myHFjourney

Shop Amazon - Cyber Monday Deals Week - Magazines from $5

Researchers have identified that at a cellular level we are indeed only 10% HUMAN. PT3

From “theory” to accepted truth (and back again)

Cleanliness coupled with the germ theory, has indeed since saved many lives and prevented the spread of infection and disease in hospitals, in homes, in communities, and in agriculture. I share this history with you about Pasteur, Beauchamp, Bernard, and Semmelweis’ however because I believe it is important to realize that what seems like a “unsubstantiated” or “unscientific” thinking in one day and age, is often proved correct only a few short decades later.

On his deathbed Pasteur, who once said that germs created illness and that the human body is sterile – basically a blank slate free of germs, then made his final statements admitting and condemning his “Germ Theory” and said, “Bernard was right. The microbe is nothing; the milieu is everything.”

Where does this leave us?

Up until just a few years ago a condition known as ‘leaky gut’ (where intestinal imbalance weakens the gut wall allows particles to pass through the wall into the blood stream) was scoffed at by many within the medical industry. Similarly, despite hundreds of research journal publications on the gut-brain-axis, some still consider it simply “a notion” that intestinal microbiota can influence brain function and state of mind.

It is therefore vitally important we all seek our own understanding of the facets of health. One of these, perhaps the most fundamental of all health principles is good digestive balance, and while cleanliness and avoiding major pathogens is important, most of us have taken the “hygiene hypothesis” too far. Theories such as “too clean for our own good” were ridiculed 10 years ago are now supported by irrefutable research that the body requires constant exposure to milder microbes for power and strength.

There’s much more to consider, and in the next few posts we will discuss which lifestyle factors effect gut balance and increase the passage of foreign particles across the gut wall (including introducing solid foods before this barrier is adequately formed), allergenic foods, a number of drugs (including NSAIDs, antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, cocaine) and how bacterial overgrowth can all cause increased permeability.9

Free Download: “7 Ways To Look After Your Micro-Organisms”Infosheet (PDF)

Your Email:

A few points to consider in the meantime…

1. In our own homes, among our own family, we want to build up our immune systems. That’s why letting children crawl on the floor is fine, having family pets is encouraged and sharing a spoon with your sister is, again, fine.
2. Cleaning away visible dirt or grime on any surface — sinks, floors, or door handles with thorough washing and cleaning products that are free of harsh chemicals — is usually enough without constant sterilizing and using disinfectants such as bleach (which probably kills everything in the air around it, too!).
3. Washing our hands with simple soap dislodges and removes surface particles without stripping everything on the skin. Antibacterial soaps kill both good and bad bacteria, and strip the skin of the environment it needs to sustain good bacteria.
4. Be less concerned about germs but instead focus more on considering how strong is your terrain. How strong is your digestive balance, digestive power?
5. Learn how to strengthen your digestive power through decreasing your reliance on antibiotics and other types of drugs, through decreasing the stress in your life and your sugar intake.
6. Learn how you may be able to strengthen your digestive power through eating wholesome organic fruits and vegetables and probiotic rich foods (including fermented and cultured foods) and supplementing with probiotics, glutamine, fish oil, quercetin, ginkgo and other flavonoid antioxidants.10
7. Discover the health benefits that regular chiropractic adjustments may offer your digestive and immune system and the support and guidance holistic practitioners can offer you and your family.

…And keep your own terrain strong.

Yours in Health,

Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani
B.App.Clin.Sci, B.Chiropractic

We are 90% microbe and 10% human: Can we lose weight by boosting good bacteria with probiotics and prebiotics? PT4

Did you read the previous post, read it HERE:

Can I lose weight by manipulating the gut microbiome?

In terms of treating the gut microbiota to lose weight, long-term human trials are needed before we can make any extravagant claims, but there is still a lot to go one from the available data on probiotics, prebiotics, diet, and other ways of altering the gut microbiota. Here’s what some of the studies show:

• Fermented kimchi reduces body weight and improves metabolic parameters in overweight and obese patients (40).
• A recent review of 61 studies show that prebiotics and probiotics usually promote increases in bifidobacteria, weight loss, and enhancement of parameters related to obesity (41).
• Anti-obesity effects of gut microbiota are associated with lactic acid bacteria (42,43,44).
• Supplementing with prebiotics such as oligofructose has the potential to promote weight loss and improve glucose regulation in overweight adults (45,46,47).

However, not all studies find an association between probiotic consumption and changes in body weight, and the primary problem seems to be that a lot of the clinical trials investigate the effects of a single probiotic supplement on inflammation, glucose tolerance, and weight loss. Since we know that the gut microbiota consists of hundreds of species of bacteria and that probiotics often lack the ability to colonize the gut, just ingesting a handful of species of lactic acid bacteria from a supplement will usually have little impact on body weight. We also know that only some species of bacteria seem to be effective and that a lot of the probiotic supplements on the market don’t contain the quantity of colony-forming units claimed on the label.

This doesn’t mean that all probiotics are a waste of money, as some strains of probiotics have been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut and promote a more diverse microbiota (48,49).

The same principles apply for the typical store-bought yogurt – It contains only a handful of species of bacteria that won’t have any long-lasting impact on the gut microbiota.

The human microbiome is one of the hottest research subjects in the scientific community at the moment, and we’re slowly learning more and more about the complex interaction between microbes and the human host. This has also led to increased interest from the corporate health industry, and some companies have already begun financing the production of advanced “microbiome modulators“. It’s possible that we’ll soon see a whole new spectrum of probiotics and drugs that are directed at the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body. Could the microbes that live in and on our bodies be one of the biggest blind spots in the history of medicine?

Bottom line

Just taking a probiotic supplement or eating some yogurt from the supermarket will have little, if any, benefit. Rather it seems that a diet that contains nutrient-rich whole foods, prebiotic fiber such as resistant starch and oligofructose, and traditionally fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir is optimal for people who want a healthy and diverse gut microbiome.

There are also several other factors besides diet that impact the microbiome, such as antibiotics, c-section vs. natural birth, and breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding. It also seems that modern hygiene often is to the detriment of our microbiome, and that triple-washing organic produce from the garden or farmer’s market probably isn’t a good idea if you want to increase bacterial diversity (50).

Liberation from self

The primary takeaway is that we have to stop looking at the human body as a single organism, and rather acknowledge that diet and lifestyle have to be tailored to a complex ecosystem made up of trillions of microbes living symbiotically with the human host. We also have to realize that the microbes that inhabit our body are passed on to the children we bring to life through birth, breastfeeding, and other types of close contact. It’s therefore highly likely that part of the genetic component of obesity and other health disorders has to do with transferring microbes and their DNA onto the child.

It’s also important to note that although this article has focused on the role microbes play in overweight and obesity, we are now learning that the microbiome has an essential role in both our mental and physiological health, and it’s therefore no doubt that paying attention to the old friends that inhabit your body is important even if you are perfectly happy with your physical appearance.

Going back to the quote from Albert Einstein, it’s clear that the expanding view on the human body is one that certainly leads to liberation from self.

@myHFjhourney

We are 90% microbe and 10% human: Can we lose weight by boosting good bacteria with probiotics and prebiotics? PT2

Read the previous post HERE:

Western lifestyle perturbs the microbiome

The microbes in our gut don’t provide us with a great immune system and various metabolic functions for free. To maintain a healthy symbiotic relationship we have to feed the metabolic powerhouse in our guts with fermentable food ingredients – prebiotics – that these microbes are able to utilize. The fact is that the human host only produces the needed enzymes to digest starch, monosaccharides, and some disaccharides, and that the rest of the carbohydrate we eat are either passed through undigested or broken down by bacteria in the colon.

One of the problems with the typical western diet – with plenty of refined food high in fat and/or sugar – is that it’s primarily absorbed in the small intestine and contains little prebiotic fiber for our old friends in the colon. We’re virtually starving 90% of the cells in our body, and on top of that we’re probably changing the balance of bacteria in the upper gastrointestinal tract by eating massive amounts of refined carbohydrates and fats (10).

There are now plenty of studies showing that the typical western diet – that is certainly without evolutionary precedent – alters the balance of microbes in the gut (11,12,13,14). It’s also been shown that a single high-fat meal, low in dietary fiber, can initiate endotoxemia in just a few hours, and that levels of C-reactive protein shoot up quickly after consuming a typical McDonald’s breakfast (15,16). When we lived as hunter-gatherers in the wild, this response to a high-fat meal would have benefitted us in the sense that low-grade inflammation initiated increased fat storage and therefore better survival when food was scarce. However, in the industrialized world we have virtually unlimited access to calories, and refined junk foods are especially cheap. This daily influx of hyper-palatable food certainly drives weight gain through several mechanisms, and changes to the gut microbiota and increased translocation of bacterial toxins seem to be very important in that regard.

So, diet can change the composition of bacteria in our bodies. What else? We know that antibiotics dramatically alters the microbiome and that antibiotic exposure in early life is associated with consistent increases in body mass during the next years of life (17,18). Other factors that seem to play an important role are the increased rates of c-sections, bottle-feeding in infancy, reduced exposure to soil microbes, modern hygiene, and limited consumption of fermented food.

The gut microbiota and regulation of body fat

Microorganisms are found in most parts of the human body, and each location has a unique composition of bacteria that are able to live in symbiotically with the human host in that specific environment. The large intestine is where most of the microbes live, and this collection of gut microbes – gut microbiota – is also the part of the microbiome that is most important in terms of weight regulation.

In 2004, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis were some of the first to document a link between the gut microbiome and host energy homeostasis. They noticed that mice raised without a microbiome ñ germ-free mice ñ had 40% less total body fat than conventionally raised mice, while at the same time eating 29% more energy. Even more surprisingly; when these germ-free mice were colonized with normal microbiota, they experienced a 60% increase in body fat content within 14 days (3).

It’s important to note that we can’t live without the microbiome and that the complete absence of microbes – as seen in this trial – is not something to aim for.

In the decade that has passed since this first glimpse into the connection between the gut microbiota and weight regulation, the research in this field has exploded, and these are some of the things we now know:

• Both studies in animals and humans show that obesity is characterized by an “obese microbiota” that is quite different than the microbiota of a lean person (19,20,21).
• Germ-free animals who are inoculated with microbiota from an obese person gain more weight than animals who receive microbiota from a lean person (22).
• Changes in the gut microbiota contribute to reduced host weight after gastric bypass surgery (23,24).
• Changes in the bacterial communities can cause weight gain (25,26,27).
• Transfer of intestinal microbiota from lean donors increases insulin sensitivity in individuals with metabolic syndrome (28).

How can microbes affect whether we gain or lose weight?

While most of the studies have focused on the gut microbiota in obesity, it’s apparent that the critters within play an essential role in weight regulation for everyone. But how is it that microorganisms are able to influence our body weight?

Since we know that the microbiome constitutes most of our cells and DNA, and that the gut microbiota provides so many important metabolic functions in our body, it’s no surprise that disruption of healthy gut microbiota can promote weight gain through several different mechanisms. While a lot of the early animal studies focused on the role microbes play in energy harvesting, it’s now becoming clear that this enhanced energy extraction from food only is a small part of a much bigger picture.

READ PART 3 HERE: 

@myHFjourney

Researchers have identified that at a cellular level we are indeed only 10% HUMAN. PT2

Read part one of this post HERE:

From “theory” to accepted truth (and back again)

Cleanliness coupled with the germ theory, has indeed since saved many lives and prevented the spread of infection and disease in hospitals, in homes, in communities, and in agriculture. I share this history with you about Pasteur, Beauchamp, Bernard, and Semmelweis’ however because I believe it is important to realize that what seems like a “unsubstantiated” or “unscientific” thinking in one day and age, is often proved correct only a few short decades later.

On his deathbed Pasteur, who once said that germs created illness and that the human body is sterile – basically a blank slate free of germs, then made his final statements admitting and condemning his “Germ Theory” and said, “Bernard was right. The microbe is nothing; the milieu is everything.”

Where does this leave us?

Up until just a few years ago a condition known as ‘leaky gut’ (where intestinal imbalance weakens the gut wall allows particles to pass through the wall into the blood stream) was scoffed at by many within the medical industry. Similarly, despite hundreds of research journal publications on the gut-brain-axis, some still consider it simply “a notion” that intestinal microbiota can influence brain function and state of mind.

It is therefore vitally important we all seek our own understanding of the facets of health. One of these, perhaps the most fundamental of all health principles is good digestive balance, and while cleanliness and avoiding major pathogens is important, most of us have taken the “hygiene hypothesis” too far. Theories such as “too clean for our own good” were ridiculed 10 years ago are now supported by irrefutable research that the body requires constant exposure to milder microbes for power and strength.

There’s much more to consider, and in the next few posts we will discuss which lifestyle factors effect gut balance and increase the passage of foreign particles across the gut wall (including introducing solid foods before this barrier is adequately formed), allergenic foods, a number of drugs (including NSAIDs, antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, cocaine) and how bacterial overgrowth can all cause increased permeability.9

Free Download: “7 Ways To Look After Your Micro-Organisms”Infosheet (PDF)

Your Email:

A few points to consider in the meantime…

1. In our own homes, among our own family, we want to build up our immune systems. That’s why letting children crawl on the floor is fine, having family pets is encouraged and sharing a spoon with your sister is, again, fine.
2. Cleaning away visible dirt or grime on any surface — sinks, floors, or door handles with thorough washing and cleaning products that are free of harsh chemicals — is usually enough without constant sterilizing and using disinfectants such as bleach (which probably kills everything in the air around it, too!).
3. Washing our hands with simple soap dislodges and removes surface particles without stripping everything on the skin. Antibacterial soaps kill both good and bad bacteria, and strip the skin of the environment it needs to sustain good bacteria.
4. Be less concerned about germs but instead focus more on considering how strong is your terrain. How strong is your digestive balance, digestive power?
5. Learn how to strengthen your digestive power through decreasing your reliance on antibiotics and other types of drugs, through decreasing the stress in your life and your sugar intake.
6. Learn how you may be able to strengthen your digestive power through eating wholesome organic fruits and vegetables and probiotic rich foods (including fermented and cultured foods) and supplementing with probiotics, glutamine, fish oil, quercetin, ginkgo and other flavonoid antioxidants.10
7. Discover the health benefits that regular chiropractic adjustments may offer your digestive and immune system and the support and guidance holistic practitioners can offer you and your family.

…And keep your own terrain strong.

Yours in Health,

Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani
B.App.Clin.Sci, B.Chiropractic

@myHFjourney

We are 90% microbe and 10% human: Can we lose weight by boosting good bacteria with probiotics and prebiotics? PT3

Did you read the previous post? Read it here:

Some microorganisms initiate chronic low-grade inflammation and weight gain

Chronic disease, weight gain, and obesity are multifactorial problems with no easy solutions. However, there are some conditions, like low-grade inflammation and oxidative stress, that seem to play an especially important role in the development and progression of many health disorders. Contrary to the acute inflammation that occurs when you sprain your ankle or get a wound, low-grade inflammation often goes unnoticed for a long time before symptoms of disease occur. The million dollar question is where this inflammation stems from and how we can prevent or treat disease by managing the inflammatory mileu in the body.

As we’re now starting to unveil secrets of the microbiome and understand the connection between microbes and human health, a lot of researchers are starting to believe that the trillions of microbes in our body could be a key player in driving inflammation and disease. One of the characteristics of chronic low-grade inflammation is elevated levels of proinflammatory compounds in the blood, such as c-reactive protein (CRP) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS is a toxin found in the outer cell wall of gram negative bacteria, and seems to be especially important in terms of the chronic low-grade inflammation associated with weight gain and obesity.

It’s been shown that the “obese microbiota” has an increased abundance of proinflammatory microorganisms that contain endotoxins like LPS, and that people who are overweight and obese have more lipopolysaccharide circulating in the blood, a state referred to as endotoxemia (29). It’s even been shown that just taking one endotoxin-producing bacterium isolated from a morbidly obese human’s gut induces obesity and insulin resistance in germ-free mice (30).

When gut bacteria ferment prebiotic fiber in the colon, they provide the cells lining the colon – colonocytes – with short-chain fatty acids. The tight junctions lining the intestine depend on these fatty acids, such as butyrate and acetate, to function properly and prevent leakage of bacterial endotoxins such as LPS (31).

So, we have established that obesity is characterized by changes to the bacterial communities in the intestine, and that people who are overweight and obese have elevated levels of proinflammatory compound such as LPS in their blood. These endotoxins immediately prompt an inflammatory response in the body by binding to toll-like receptor 4 at the surface of innate immune cells (32). Since we know that fat tissue in itself can be proinflammatory, it was often believed that the chronic low-grade inflammation associated with obesity was solely a consequence, and not a cause, of weight gain. However, we now know that endotoxemia, and the subsequent inflammation, in itself can initiate weight gain, insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disturbances (33,34,35,36,37).

It’s important to note that other mechanisms such as regulation of adipose tissue and liver fatty acid composition, and modulation of gut-derived peptide secretion also are important in terms of gut microbiota and weight regulation. The fact is that there is still a lot we don’t know about the trillions of bugs that inhabit the human body, and although it’s well established that the microbiome plays a role in overweight and obesity, the magnitude of its contribution is still unknown.

Probiotics and prebiotics

As mentioned earlier, prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system. When we eat these types of fermentable substrates, our beneficial gut bugs get a chance to flourish, pathogens are suppressed due to lowering of the pH in the colon, and the production of short-chain fatty acids increases (38). Although only a few types of carbohydrates are officially classified as prebiotics, all of the non-starch polysaccharides found in food are broken down by gut bacteria and could have a prebiotic effect.

Onions, leeks, and jerusalem artichoke are some of the vegetables that are rich in prebiotic inulin-type fructans. Resistant starch is another food ingredient that’s especially effective when it comes to increasing the production of short-chain fatty acids in the colon and enhancing the growth of beneficial bacteria (39). Resistant starch is essentially starch that resists digestion in the small intestine and passes into the colon where most of it’s broken down by gut bacteria. Good sources of resistant starch include green bananas, potato starch, legumes, and potatoes. The resistant starch content of foods like potatoes increase when they are cooked and then allowed to cool for several hours (retrograded starch).

Probiotics are bacteria that have claimed health benefits when consumed. The two most well-studied types of probiotics are bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, which are commonly found in probiotic supplements and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir. Just like with prebiotics, it’s likely that several species of microorganisms have a beneficial effect on human health even if they aren’t officially classified as probiotics. We know that humans have co-evolved for millions of years with the vast bacterial communities in soil, water, and other animals, and one of the costs of modern hygiene seems to be that we are losing touch with these microbial “old friends“ that helped shape our immune system.

@myHFjourney

Read the next post HERE:

Researchers have identified that at a cellular level we are indeed only 10% HUMAN.

Guest post

“Really?” you may say. Yes and the remaining trillions of cells are actually bacteria, fungi and parasites that are living ON US and INSIDE US.1

Feeling a little bit dirty now? Hmmm… Me too!!

But before you rush to grab your hand sanitiser let’s examine how when we add our human cells and the trillions of other types of microbes found in our body — together, we create a “microbiome” an environment which is designed to work in balance. When it does – we experience digestive power, immune strength, balance of the gut-brain axis, robust health and vitality.2

In experiments where animals are raised in completely sterile (germ-free) environments, their immune systems do not develop normally and they developed serious immune diseases including allergy and autoimmunity.3 There is substantial research that outlines if the immune system is skewed by a bacterial imbalance then we see skewed immune responses which appears to the basis of so many of the health challenges children and adults alike face today.

When our “microbiome” is imbalanced, our digestion, immune function, state of mind and general health and well-being become not only unreliable but an imbalanced microbiome is now believed to be one of the primary causes of chronic infection, inflammation, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue, cancer and neurological problems such as Alzheimers, autism and schizophrenia.4

The Canadian Medical Association Journal just a few months ago5 stated that “the disruption of the gut balance has been linked to an increasing number of diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, allergies and asthma.”

So… allow me to introduce you to these incredibly important microbes.

It’s Time To Get To Know The ‘Neighbours’

These important microbes (our neighbours) are found in all parts of our body — our skin, hair, mucus membranes, the lungs, etc. but by far the highest density of organisms) are found in the digestive tract.6 It must be emphasized that these microbes in the body are so important they are undeniably vital to human survival.

Our human cells live in a mutually beneficial way with these microbial genes and these neighbours of ours are responsible not only for “neighbourhood watch” but so much more, including7:

• promoting intestinal homeostasis,
• stimulating development of the immune system,
• providing protection against bugs that cause disease (pathogens),
• the removal of harmful substances (toxins) – e.g. pesticides, heavy metals
• contributing to the processing of nutrients (including the breakdown of carbohydrates, combining and forming of short-chain fatty acids and vitamins) harvesting of energy.

Talk about having GOOD neighbours – we certainly wouldn’t want to boil them up!!

Due to this MASSIVLEY SYMBIOTIC or WIN/WIN relationship much of the way we look at germs and infections has changed. Interestingly the Human Microbiome Project (HMP)7was established in 2008 to look at different sites and strains of bacteria that we humans carry and the role they play in human health and disease. According to the Journal Genetics, “The microbial compostition of the forearms and the underarms are as ‘ecologically dissimiliar as rainforests are to deserts.”8

In future posts I’ll share with you the importance of this and the studies that demonstrate how babies born via caesarean birth host different types of bacteria to vaginally born babies, babies who are breastfed host different types of bacteria to formula fed babies and additionally how autistic children have been found to carry a variations in bacteria to children without autism. These studies and many more relating to psorasis, stomach ulcers, ulcerative colitis and Chrohn’s disease to name just a few, appear to indicate that we can use these variations in bacteria as a measured characteristic (biomarker) of biological states or conditions.

The importance with this being that if there are certain specific patterns of microbes that appear to relate to different disease or illness states then THE MORE WE UNDERSTAND ABOUT OUR MICROBIOME, THE MORE WE WILL THEN UNDERSTAND HOW IT BECOMES IMBALANCED and results in infection, sickness and disease AND so too will we hopefully be BETTER ADDRESS THESE DIFFERENT ILLNESSES. It also appears that each individual’s community of gut microbes is unique and profoundly sensitive to environmental conditions, beginning at birth and potentially within the womb (in-utero).

Considering Pasteur’s Opposition…

It interests me that back in the time of Pasteur he had two opposing theorists. One was a gentlemen named Antoine Beauchamp (1816–1908) who completely rejected Pasteur’s ideas and believed that germs and parasites will only survive in acidic and unfavourable conditions and therefore mere exposure to germs is not enough to get sick. Beauchamp believed, “The primary cause of disease is in us, always in us.” His philosophy forms the basis of many of today’s Alkaline Diets.

The other man who opposed Pasteur was Claude Bernard (1813-1878) and he concluded that susceptibility to infectious agents occurs if the body’s internal environment is unbalanced. He coined the term “milieu interieur” — French for “internal environment” — and believed that this terrain determined our level of health. He is quoted as saying “death sits in the bowels…” and “bad digestion is the root of all evil”. When you hear people speak about “good terrain” or bacterial balance, Bernard’s lifework forms a solid foundation here.

Pasteur verbally disagreed with Beauchamp and Bernard and at the time his theory seemed to fit the mindset of the people and establishment better. As a result pencillin and antibiotics were eagerly being formulated ironically at the same time that other lead thinkers were proposing simple theories relating to hygiene. Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) began the “hygiene hypothesis” when he found that death rates of mothers and babies were three times higher in doctors wards (13–18%) compared to the death rates in midwifery wards (2%).

He concluded that the higher rates of infections in women delivered by physicians and medical students were associated with the handling of corpses during autopsies before attending the pregnant women, this was not done by the midwives. Observing the high rate of deaths in hospitals he suggested that it was not wise for doctors to move from working with cadavers or dead bodies to women in labour. He suggested that doctors’ hands were washed between caring for patients. He conducted a study in which the intervention was hand washing and in a controlled trial the mortality rate fell to about 2%—down to the same level as the midwives. Later he started washing the medical instruments and the rate decreased to about 1%.

This seems ludicrous now in our day and age but interestingly despite his various publications of results where hand-washing reduced mortality, Semmelweis’s observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands. Semmelweis’s practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death (age 46), when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory.

@myHFjourney

Read part two of this post HERE:

Humans Carry More Bacterial Cells than Human Ones

Another guest post on the topic

You are more bacteria than you are you, according to the latest body census

By Melinda Wenner | November 30, 2007

We compulsively wash our hands, spray our countertops and grimace when someone sneezes near us—in fact, we do everything we can to avoid unnecessary encounters with the germ world. But the truth is we are practically walking petri dishes, rife with bacterial colonies from our skin to the deepest recesses of our guts.

All the bacteria living inside you would fill a half-gallon jug; there are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells, according to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho (U.I.), along with other estimates from scientific studies. (Despite their vast numbers, bacteria don't take up that much space because bacteria are far smaller than human cells.) Although that sounds pretty gross, it's actually a very good thing.

The infestation begins at birth: Babies ingest mouthfuls of bacteria during birthing and pick up plenty more from their mother's skin and milk—during breast-feeding, the mammary glands become colonized with bacteria. "Our interaction with our mother is the biggest burst of microbes that we get," says Gary Huffnagle, a microbiologist and internist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. And that's just for starters: Throughout our lives, we consume bacteria in our food and water "and who knows where else," Huffnagle says.

Starting in the mouth, nose or other orifices, these microbes travel through the esophagus, stomach and / or intestines—locations where most of them set up camp. Although there are estimated to be more than 500 species living at any one time in an adult intestine, the majority belong to two phyla, the Firmicutes (which includeStreptococcus, Clostridium and Staphylococcus), and the Bacteroidetes (which include Flavobacterium).

For a long time, scientists assumed that these bacteria, despite their numbers, neither did us much harm nor much good. But in the past decade or so, researchers have changed their tune.

For one thing, bacteria produce chemicals that help us harness energy and nutrients from our food, Huffnagle explains. Germ-free rodents have to consume nearly a third more calories than normal rodents to maintain their body weight, and when the same animals were later given a dose of bacteria, their body fat levels spiked, even if they didn't eat any more than they had before.

Intestinal bacteria also appear to keep our immune systems healthy. Several studies suggest that microbes regulate the population and density of intestinal immune cells by aiding in the development of gut-associated lymphoid tissues that mediate a variety of immune functions.

The bacteria also appear to influence the function of immune cells like dendritic cells,T cells and B cells, although scientists don't know the precise mechanisms yet. And one chemical released by the bacterium Bacteroides fragilis is capable of directing how the developing immune system matures.

Further, probiotics—dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial microbes—have been shown to boost immunity. Not only do gut bacteria "help protect against other disease-causing bacteria that might come from your food and water," Huffnagle says, "they truly represent another arm of the immune system."

Of course, they can't protect against every onslaught, which is why we still have to depend on antibiotics to rid us of some disease-causing infections. But antibiotics don't just kill off the "bad" microbes, they wipe out the "good" ones, too. That's why antibiotic use can cause diarrhea and upset stomach: The drugs interfere with the balance of our bacterial flora, making us sick, Huffnagle explains.

But the bacterial body has made another contribution to our humanity—genes. Soon after the Human Genome Project published its preliminary results in 2001, a group of scientists announced that a handful of human genes—the consensus today is around 40—appear to be bacterial in origin.

The question that remains, however, is how exactly they got there. Some scientists argue that the genes must have been transferred to humans from bacteria fairly recently in evolutionary history, because the genes aren't found in our closest animal ancestors. Others argue that they may be ancient relics from evolutionary events that took place early in our species's history and, for reasons unknown, the genes were lost in these ancestors. It's impossible to know for sure at this point.

"There remain to my knowledge no clear cases of human genes recently acquired from bacteria," says Cédric Feschotte, a biologist at the University of Texas at Arlington. "It doesn't mean there are none, but they are not well documented."

One thing is for sure: our lives and even our identities are more closely linked to the microbial world than we may think. Bacteria do a lot to keep us healthy, and scientists are just beginning to uncover their valuable secrets. As U.I.'s Bohach says: "We do not completely understand the full impact of our bacterial flora on our health and physiology."

Food for thought, yes?

@MyHFjourney