A recent study published in the journal PLoS Biology has found that Candida albicans forms two distinct biofilm types according to what form the Candida is in—the sexual or asexual form.¹ A biofilm is a protective polysaccharide matrix in which microbial populations exist and are able to hide from the immune system and antimicrobials. As it turns out, when Candida is in an asexual form, it produces a biofilm that is impermeable to antifungals, antibodies and white blood cells. This asexual form makes up the majority—about 90 percent—of Candida cells in the body. The other ten percent are sexually reproducing Candida cells that form a similar looking biofilm that behaves differently and is susceptible to antifungals and to the immune system.

Biofilms are formed by more than just Candida, however. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that nearly 80 percent of chronic microbial infections are due to biofilms.² Dr. Maria Usman, MD has developed, and is refining, a Biofilm Protocol for use in children with gut disorders on the autism spectrum.³ She is seeing some success with this protocol, though it must be tailored to the individual and can cause a “die-off” reaction, also known as the Herxheimer reaction. (When microbes are killed they give off microbial toxins that can cause sickness-like symptoms that can make the patient feel worse before getting better.)

Another approach that can help get Candida and gut issues under control is the 4R Model.⁴ The Institute of Functional Medicine promotes this model as the best way to evaluate and treat patients with gastrointestinal complaints. The 4R model asks four main questions:

REMOVE—What may need to be removed? This may be pathogenic or potentially pathogenic organisms like Candida, bacteria or parasites. It can also be foods or toxins to which the person is sensitive or allergic.

REPLACE—What may need to be replaced? In this step, the use of digestive enzymes and HCl should be considered to ensure that they body is properly absorbing necessary nutrients.

REINOCULATE—What may the body need to be reinoculated with? This considers intestinal microbes and uses probiotics and prebiotics to reestablish intestinal balance.

REPAIR—What may be needed to repair a healthy mucosal layer? The use of certain nutrients, such as L-glutamine, to repair the mucosal layer are useful here. 

One probiotic—the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii—may be particularly helpful for those with Candida problems. Candida often occurs in people who have been treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics target bacteria, both good and bad, but do not affect Candida because it is a yeast, leaving no competition for Candida. This is where S. boulardii can be helpful, because it is not killed by antibiotics like other probiotic bacteria. Futher, S. boulardii has also been shown to inhibit Candida albicans.⁵ S. boulardii produces capric acid, and both have been shown to downregulate (reduce) the expression of genes associated with Candida virulence. Thus, the capric acid secreted by S. boulardii inhibits C. albicans hyphal formation, adhesion properties and biofilm formation.⁶ Probiotic bacteria have also been found to be helpful for Candida by helping to reduce and inhibit Candida, and by stimulating immune response against Candida.⁷ 

Bringing the gut back into balance takes a multipronged approach.  The 4R program can help address the multiple issues that arise when faced with digestive conditions like Candida overgrowth. 

1. Song Y, et al., “Alternative mating type configurations of Candida albicans result in alternative biofilms regulated by different pathways.” PLoS Biology. Aug 2011;9(8): e1001117.
2.  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-03-047.html
3. http://www.autismpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Protocols/Usman
4. Jones DS (editor), Textbook of Functional Medicine, The Institute for Functional Medicine, 2005, p. 462-8.
5. Krasowska A, et al., “The antagonistic effect of Saccharomyces boulardii on Candida albicans filamentation, adhesion and biofilm formation.”FEMS Yeast Res. 2009 Dec;9(8):1312-21.
6. Murzyn A, et al., “Capric acid secreted by S. boulardii inhibits C. albicans filamentous growth, adhesion and biofilm formation.” PLoS One. 2010 Aug 10;5(8):e12050.
7. Wagner RD, et al., “Biotherapeutic effects of probiotic cacteria on candidiasis in immunodeficient mice.” Infect and Immun. 1997 Oct; p. 4165-72.

Leonard Smith, M.D.

Dr. Leonard Smith is a prominent Board-Certified, general, gastrointestinal and vascular surgeon who had a successful private practice for 25 years. In addition to his active surgery practice, he also incorporated lifestyle, diet, supplementation, exercise, detoxification, and stress management into many of the therapies he would prescribe. Many of his patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses did so well under his treatment regimes that he began to devote most of his career to foundational health care and preventive medicine.

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I recommend eating natural foods all the time because I know foods that don’t contain toxic ingredients are better for our bodies. If you eat meat, choose natural meats from animals that haven’t been treated with growth hormones and antibiotics.

Now there are even more good reasons to go all-natural. A recent study found certain strains of E. coli bacteria that were causing urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women were the same strains found on antibiotic-treated chicken at the local grocery store.

Yeah. Gross.

Are you wondering, “how the heck?” Well, antibiotic-treated chicken may actually harbor bacteria that are more resistant because some bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment. These resistant bacteria live on the raw chicken and can be consumed if cross-contamination prevention is not practiced while preparing and cooking food. The bacteria can pass through the digestive tract without causing an infection in the gut, but these same bacteria can migrate to the urethra where they are not as easily tolerated, triggering a UTI.   

What to do? Here are some tips:

• Buy chicken raised without antibiotics.  If you can get organic, that’s even better.
• Prevent cross contamination by cooking chicken thoroughly, washing your hands before and after handling chicken.  Thoroughly clean all utensils, cutting board and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing food (of any kind for safe measure).
• Do not use the same cutting board or utensils for raw vegetables that you used for the raw chicken
• To avoid UTIs, wipe from front to back, urinate after intercourse, and keep your gut balanced with a healthy amount of beneficial bacteria

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Omega-3 fatty acids are wonder nutrients that offer many benefits to the body, from head to toe. Now, even the mouth is included in the long list of body areas that function better after intake of omega-3s.

A recent study found that a moderate, daily intake of the omega-3s DHA and EPA (found in marine sources, usually fish oil) was associated with up to a 20 percent decreased risk of gum disease (periodontitis).

Gum disease is an inflammatory disease that is caused by microorganisms like the bacteria Streptococcus mutans, Candida albicans and Porphyromonas gingivalis. Usually antibiotics are prescribed in an effort to eliminate these bacteria, but other treatments have been used that target the inflammation of gum disease, like scaling and root planing (ouch!) and in extreme cases surgery.   

Omega-3s are most known for their anti-inflammatory effects, so it is not surprising that they would help quell inflammation in the mouth. Additionally, this study also found that omega-3 fatty acids also demonstrated antibacterial activity against oral pathogens.

The mouth is the very beginning of the digestive tract, and the bacterial balance in the mouth is proving to be more important than previously thought. In fact, gum disease is also associated with the development of heart disease! Everything is connected, folks, and it all goes back to the gut!

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The gut-brain connection is fascinating. It involves an intimate communication between the gut and the brain, and it goes in both directions—from the brain to the gut, and from the gut to the brain. I mean, isn’t it cool that what happens in your gut can affect your brain?

Yet another study looking at the gut-brain connection has found that gut bacteria are associated with anxiety. The researchers used an animal model to study this link, as it is easier to work out the details of these connections in animal models. Researchers found that antibiotic treatment altered the normal gut bacterial count, producing a change in behavior—the mice became anxious. They also experienced an increase in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), linked to anxiety and depression. When the antibiotics were stopped, behavior returned to normal.

To take this one step further, the researchers added gut bacteria from mice genetically prone to be passive, to mice prone to be more active and exploratory, and vice versa. They found that by giving the mice a different set of bacteria, the mice began to behave as the mice from which the bacteria were originally isolated. One of the researchers stated, “these results lay the foundation for investigating the therapeutic potential of probiotic bacteria and their products in the treatment of behavioral disorders, particularly those associated with gastrointestinal conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.”

Like I said, the gut-brain connection is fascinating.  Did you know your gut had so much power over your health?

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Renew You Challenge

Let’s start this week off right!

Weekly challenge (I mean, opportunity!) to help set you off on the right foot and in the right direction for bringing health to your week. You could even add it to your calendar. Join us!

I talk all the time about the gut connection to other areas of the body—like when your gut is out of balance and it affects your brain, your skin or your joints. I also talk about the many ways your gut becomes imbalanced in the first place—like with antibiotics, acid blocking medications, poor diet, and stress.

Yes, even stress affects your gut. Stress-relieving therapies are high on my list of things to include in a healthy lifestyle. It has been known for a while now that stress can throw the gut out of balance. A recent study follows up on this by showing that not only do gut bacteria levels change with stress, but those changes also affect immunity.

The researchers of this study plan to further evaluate whether gut microbial changes are the reason that certain diseases worsen under stress. It’s a vicious cycle—stress alters the gut microbiota, which leads to worsening of symptoms, which adds more stress… and on and on.

Break the cycle. Find some kind of stress-relieving activity, like massage, meditation, yoga, tai chi, exercise—anything that brings you calm. This is an essential part of your well-being. After you’ve done that, make sure your gut also has the right support with probiotics. Break the cycle.

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Over-prescription of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance and affects the ability of bacteria to survive antibiotic treatment.  That’s very important because if antibiotics do not work for infections, there isn’t much else that will.  Now that’s scary!

A recent study of patients hospitalized for respiratory infections found that in those who were diagnosed with a viral infection (antibiotics will not help a viral infection) and who also had a normal chest x-ray (which detects pneumonia, which is often a bacterial infection), 63 percent were still prescribed antibiotics!  Is it perhaps just habit to prescribe them? 

Surprise, surprise:  Those patients were found to not benefit from the antibiotic treatment and, in fact, some went on to develop the antibiotic-associated Clostridium difficile infection.

This over-prescription of antibiotics is widespread, and is putting people at risk of developing dangerous infections, like C. diff, MRSA, E. coli and Klebsiella infections. In fact, two bacteria strains that carry a specific gene (NDM-1) have recently been in the news. Why?  Because bacteria that carry this gene are resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the last-resort antibiotics currently being used when the more common ones fail.

Next time your doctor wants to prescribe an antibiotic, make sure that it’s being used for a bacterial infection, and not a viral infection.

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I like to call the proper balance of gut bacteria your “GPS”—your Gut Protection System. Your GPS works to: protect your intestinal lining; “crowd out” and neutralize the harmful bacteria; and influence the immune system so that it responds in the proper way to harmful invaders like bacteria, toxins, and even undigested food particles.

Your GPS might not be properly balanced—and you may not even know it. Sure, some people experience obvious digestive symptoms like gas and bloating, or heartburn, but some people don’t exhibit digestive symptoms, yet still have a gut imbalance. A malfunctioning GPS can have far-reaching health consequences. For example, many mood disorders, like depression and anxiety, are closely linked to gut health. Rheumatoid arthritis—how much further from the gut could you get?—is also known to be associated with gut imbalances. The list goes on and on. Read about it in my new book, The Road to Perfect Health, available exclusively through my PBS special of the same title. (Check your local PBS listings for show times.)

So, how does your GPS malfunction? Well, there are a number of ways. I’ll highlight some here:

Exposure to chemicals

• Certain medications (like antibiotics and acid-suppressing medications)
• Over processed and refined foods (I call them Dead Foods)
• Low stomach acid

In today’s world, it can be hard to avoid some of these triggers. That’s why it’s best to balance your gut with beneficial probiotic bacteria to get your GPS up and running. As I say: Balance your gut, heal your body.

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I love it when I hear from people who have taken my advice and to learn how they have personally benefitted from it. Just look at this incredible testimonial from a woman who decided to take her health into her own hands:

“I am writing to let you know that the Ultimate Flora probiotics you recommend not only helped me recover from a debilitating disease, but made it possible for me to continue nursing my baby. In 2004, I originally came down with Clostridium difficile colitis (C. diff) and spent six months in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals trying to get cured. Every time a course of antibiotics (first Metronidazole, then Vancocin) would stop the symptoms, they would come back as soon as I went off. It wasn’t until I did my own research and tried tapering down the antibiotics while tapering up probiotics that I got rid of the disease. But, as has been known to happen, this year (2010) it returned, after the birth of my 3rd child. After a few days of symptoms, I had a feeling what might be wrong. Sure enough, a clinical test turned up positive for C. diff. I was told that I would need to start Metronidazole right away, and that it would no longer be safe for me to nurse my baby. I told the clinician to hold off on ordering the prescription, and let me try something first. I went to my local health food store and purchased Ultimate Flora Super Critical (200 billion cultures) probiotics. After two weeks of Super Critical therapy, my symptoms were mostly gone. Two more months of daily maintenance on Critical Care (50 billion cultures), and I had no more symptoms at all. I have not relapsed in the 6 months since this happened. I am completely confident that nothing short of the Super Critical product you recommend could have cured this virulent disease. I have you to thank for my health, and that of my baby, who is still nursing at 7 months.” ~ Rachel P., Maryland

Please note C. diff is a very serious, often fatal condition and should only be treated under the care of a qualified physician. Most physicians are now treating C. diff with a combination of probiotics and antibiotics.

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You can say you’re the best all day long, but when Better Nutrition says it, then you know it’s true! I’m happy to say that the magazine’s elite panel recently awarded CleanseSMART™ and Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion™ Best of Supplements Awards based upon reader feedback and surveys from experts in the medical and nutritional supplements industries.

In the Cleansing and Detoxification Category, Renew Life’s CleanseSMART™ was recognized among the best, while Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion™ received a Best of Supplement Award in the Probiotics Category.

Here’s how they won them: Surveys were conducted that included questions about quality, ingredients, formulation, price points, customer satisfaction, popularity, and widespread availability. The results led to 76 winners in 31 categories that spanned everything from fish oils and antioxidants to multivitamins and herbs. In the Cleansing and Detox and Probiotics Categories, we are among the top three products in each category.

It’s not surprising to me since CleanseSMART advanced total body cleanse has also been voted the #1 Cleanse by health food retailers for the last 7 years. It’s combination of 23 natural ingredients help support the body’s natural detoxification processes. Like all Renew Life products, it doesn’t contain any added ingredients or fillers. Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion probiotic is also a huge favorite among customers, and is formulated specifically for people who are engaging in or have recently completed a course of antibiotics to help them re-establish a healthy balance of good bacteria in the digestive tract.

So thank you to everyone who chose CleanseSMART and Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion. Renew Life will take such high praises any time!

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When you hear the word “antibiotics” I’m sure a lot of you think, “Hey, those are good for me—they help me feel better when I’m sick.” Right? And yes, you’re partly right, but there’s also a dark side to using antibiotics that a lot of people either don’t know or don’t want to think about. What do I mean?

Well, did you happen to hear that recent story about an antibiotic-resistant gene making its way to the U.S. from India? So-called “superbugs” like the ones linked to the overseas gene are making people very sick, but the worst part is that the powerful antibiotics we’d normally use to get rid of them aren’t working anymore because of widespread antibiotic resistance.

And now a new study from Stanford University shows that taking antibiotics over and over again may impact our health by affecting the normal levels of bacteria in our digestive tract. Yup, that’s right—it all comes back to the gut! Because as you know, that’s where roughly 80 percent of our natural defenses are found, and it’s where literally trillions of microbes (both good and bad) exist in a delicate balance to keep us healthy.

So what this new study looked at was 1. whether or not repeated antibiotic use affected that nicely balanced bacterial colony in your gut, and 2. if and how well your gut bacteria were able to “bounce back” after each round of antibiotics. Now I’m sure you saw this coming, but the results weren’t great. The antibiotics wiped out large numbers of existing gut bacteria in all of the participants, and even though some gut populations returned to normal a few weeks after the antibiotic treatment stopped, this wasn’t the case after a second course of antibiotics. In fact, two months after the second round of treatment, gut bacteria levels still hadn’t returned to normal.

This topic is so important, and I’m really glad to see that it’s starting to get so much attention. When I say everything is connected to the gut, I REALLY mean it, especially now that all these new studies are finding that an out-of-balance gut can contribute to everything from digestive problems and weight gain to allergies, arthritis and yes, even chronic disease. So it’s time to pay attention—take a proactive stance when it comes to your health, and make sure you really need that antibiotic before you take it!

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