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

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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: 

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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)

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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

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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.

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