Your gut bacteria are directly linked to Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease & More

Your gut bacteria are directly linked to Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease & More

“In actuality – in sheer numbers – the microbes (bacteria) in your body and their genes dwarf the rest of your genes (your human genome). Yes, it turns out that you, me, and the rest of us are only about 10% human! The other 90% of genetic information (genes) that exerts tremendous influence over your health comes from your microbes.”

All the hoopla in medicine today is about genes, mapping the human genome, and gene therapy. Quietly and behind the scenes and headlines, a group of scientists is studying the human microbiome – the billions of germs, bacteria, and microbes that are everywhere – in your skin, your mouth, all over the inside of your body, and in your gut (small and large intestines). This amazing microbial world has all but been ignored by medicine, as all the dramatic and high-tech world of drugs, surgery, gene manipulation, robotic surgery, and more take all the headlines.

Medicine has had to report some findings on your microbiome because using this microscopic world has produced cures that have alluded all of medicine and even their most potent drugs. Clostridium difficile (C diff) bacterial infections in the gut have been a tremendous problem in medicine today as tens of thousands of patients contract this bug, generally during hospital stays. It is resistant to almost all drugs. And for close to 20,000 patients annually, no drugs work at all and the patients die. In medicine the saying often goes, “by the time you find out that the patient has C diff, they are dead.”

Super-High-Tech Medicine vs. Good Bacteria

But remarkably, easily, and effectively, the healthy bacteria in your gut are the cure for this life-threatening infection. A simple implant of healthy fecal material (which contains healthy bacteria) cures C diff while all of super-high-tech medicine often fails. And in the latest findings, doctors have discovered that they can simply concentrate the healthy bacteria from fecal material, put it into capsules, give it to patients with C diff and other infections, and it works just as well as an implant. It cures the patient after the ingestion of between 20-30 capsules.

This is absolutely amazing, remarkable, and humbling. It constantly reminds me of my colleague John Trowbridge, MD, who always would say, “first I cure the gut.” How true this is, and how clearly this is being proven today, even though you probably won’t hear much about it. It turns out that your health – especially your tendency for diabetes, obesity, and heart disease – is more related to the health and the genes of the bacteria in your gut than your own human genes!

Grandma had diabetes; Mom had diabetes, so you have it. Really? Or did Grandma and Mom have unhealthy guts with non-diverse gut bacteria populations, lots of unhealthy gut bacteria, and little healthy gut bacteria? Did you inherit your ancestor’s diabetes genes, or did you inherit their sick guts which hastened your downward health spiral to diabetes? Did you inherit their diabetes genes, or did you inherit their eating habits, which caused an unhealthy gut, which caused diabetes?

The Bacteria in Your Gut Can Predict Your Health Future

Here is what we are discovering about a healthy or sick gut and microbiome – also called your flora. The August 29, 2013, issue of Nature showed that individuals with a healthy diverse bacterial population in their gut were less likely to become obese or get diabetes or heart disease. They took it further saying that the diversity of the bacteria in your gut could define your risk for these diseases!

And the newest discoveries in 2012 about your gut bacteria show that obese people can regain their insulin sensitivity (this is the cure for type 2 diabetes) following fecal implant treatments from healthy people! And obese people who received fecal implants from a lean individual lose weight and the tendency to become obese! In mice, even those fed a variation of the typical American diet had less tendency to gain weight. Are you getting all this? The bacteria in your gut can protect you from diabetes and obesity – and their related trickle-down illnesses like heart disease.

With a healthy gut and a diverse bacterial population in your gut, you not only have less chance of getting deadly diseases, your weight would stay normal, you would gain less weight in your hips, and you would have a more normal cholesterol level. And here’s what’s best about all this – you can actually do something to gain a more healthy and diverse bacterial population in your gut.

Unlike so many things in health and medicine where there is not much you can do, or the benefits will not show up in the near future, you can improve your gut now. Aside from the obvious – like a C diff or other gut infection where a fecal implant is needed – you can slowly and steadily rebuild a healthy gut to lose weight, stave off diabetes and heart disease, and even reduce your overall levels of inflammation (chronic pain).

What to Do?

Change Your Diet: First, as always, change your diet to one of whole foods. These are foods, many raw, in their natural state. Many of these foods contain fiber and resistant starch that can ferment in your colon and have been shown to nurture diverse, healthy bacterial populations. Bananas, oats, beans, beets, onions, nuts, bran, avocados, sauerkraut, raw milk cheese, and healthy eggs are good examples. Quit all processed and fast foods which are associated with unhealthy and non-diverse gut bacterial populations.

Heal Your Gut: If you have constant gut problems like constipation, diarrhea, colitis, irritable bowel, etc., you can rest assured you do not have healthy diverse bacteria in your gut. You must take action. After changing your diet, use supplements that nurture, heal, and rebuild – your gut and its flora. Start on a pre-
and pro-biotic supplement. A pro-biotic is healthy bacteria that you can get into your gut via capsules. A pre-biotic is food for the healthy bacteria that is being introduced via the probiotic. Fortunately Standard Process makes a premiere product that contains both. Take ProSynbiotic (2 capsules daily) for a year. Get tested by Dr. Kimberly for your optimum dosage.

Use the healing properties of allantoin, tillandsia, and more. Take Okra Pepsin E3 (4 capsules daily) for a year. This product also contains okra, which is sticky, and pepsin, which can slowly digest away stale mucus from the lining of your intestines. And use the amazing product Zymex (2 per meal for a year) which is made from the velvety mold that grows on a culture of beets, tillandsia, and wheat germ. Zymex helps you develop a healthy acidity in your gut which healthy bacteria love and unhealthy bacteria hate. Zymex is also highly detoxifying in your gut. Get tested by Dr. Kimberly for your optimum dosage.

Improve Your Digestion: Your gut will never get better unless you digest your food properly. Most people have insufficient stomach acid. This leads to chronic indigestion, heartburn, and GERD. And it contributes to a sick gut because partially undigested particles are passed along to your intestines where they do not belong – breeding an unhealthy gut and unhealthy gut bacteria.

NO Antacids: Do not take antacids for heartburn. These make you permanently ill and insure an unhealthy gut. Instead perform the Zypan Test to determine if you need supplemental stomach acid to improve your digestion. Turn to page 107 in your Encyclopedia of Pragmatic and Holistic Medicine or your 45-Day Health Turnaround book. If you are deficient in stomach acid, use Zypan (1-3 tablets per meal) for a year. Get tested by Dr. Kimberly for your optimum dosage.

 

Be Proactive

Your gut is critical to your health. Your gut bacteria are critical to your health. The genes of the bacteria and microbes in your gut and in your body make up 90% of your total gene expression. The most glaring health effects of an unhealthy gut are obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. You don’t have to wait for this to happen to you. And you don’t have to live with these. Instead, rebuild a healthy gut and start to get well from the inside out.

The information from the microbiome project and others is astounding and just starting to make news. While not as glamorous as high-tech medicine, it is profound and life changing.

HEALTH ALERT March 2014, Volume 31, Issue 3