The gut-brain axis involves the connection of the gut to the brain. This connection goes in both directions—from the brain to the gut and from the gut to the brain. In one way, the gut-brain axis is connected by the vagus nerve—a large nerve connecting the brain to the intestines and other organs. The vagus nerve both sends messages to various organs, and also receives messages from these organs—including the gut—to send to the brain. A new study has established the vagus nerve as a main form of communication from the gut bacteria to the brain.

In an animal model, researchers were able to show that mice fed the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1 showed less stress-, anxiety-, and depression-related behaviors than did mice not fed the bacteria. Further, the probiotic mice had lower levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, and they also experienced changes in the expression of receptors of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in the brain—highlighting the ability of probiotics to directly affect brain chemistry under normal conditions.

This is an early study that will need to be replicated in humans, but studies like these pave the way for our understanding of the complexities of the gut connection. Did you ever think your gut could have such an effect on your health? If you read my blog regularly, I sure hope so!

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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! 

Anxiety, or worry, is experienced by just about everyone at some point. Some people have anxiety disorders, which are more serious conditions, but it’s safe to say that most people experience at least occasional anxiety. That’s why a new study on omega-3s found in fish oil is so exciting. It’s the first study to look at the effects of fish oil on anxiety in a healthy population—meaning, in people who don’t already have an anxiety disorder. It’s already known that fish oil can be helpful for those people. But what about people who only experience anxiety here and there?

The researchers took a group of medical students and gave them omega-3 supplements for three months. The supplements contained 2,085 mg of EPA and 348 mg of DHA. Another group got a placebo. After three months, the group taking the fish oil showed a 20 percent reduction in anxiety scores and a 14 percent reduction in the production of the inflammatory marker interleukin-6 (IL-6) over the placebo group.

IL-6 is an inflammatory cytokine. Depression and anxiety are both known to involve the production of inflammatory cytokines. This is one of the gut-brain connections, actually, since the inflammation can originate in the gut. Omega-3s were able to reduce these inflammatory compounds, highlighting just one way they may be helping mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

This week, if you tend to get anxious about things, even if occasionally, and you’re not taking fish oil, you might want to reconsider. The studies on fish oil are hard to ignore.

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The gut-brain connection is an interesting one because it travels in two directions—from the brain to the gut and from the gut to the brain. For the longest time this connection was thought to only travel in one direction, from the brain to the gut, like when strong emotions trigger an upset stomach. But researchers now know that what happens in your gut has an effect on your brain.

One recent study at the Stanford University School of Medicine tried to elucidate this connection. According to one of the researchers, “Gastric irritation during the first few days of life may reset the brain into a permanently depressed state.” Genetic susceptibility also plays a role, of course, since not all stomach upsets will lead to depression, but this connection is interesting.

The gut is connected directly to the brain by the vagus nerve, and even has a nervous system of its own—the enteric nervous system. This connection between the gut and the brain allows for close communication. Many studies are finding that the gut has a major effect on the brain. I have blogged about it before. More than once.

The researchers used an animal model of functional dyspepsia, also known as indigestion, to determine that stomach irritation early in life can lead to depressed and anxious behaviors that last much longer than the indigestion itself. Their findings will lead to more studies to investigate how this gut brain connection works, and if new ways can be found to treat depression and anxiety in humans, based on the gut-brain link.

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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!

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gut disorder characterized by abdominal pain and discomfort, and altered bowel habits—constipation, diarrhea, or usually, alternating between both. People with IBS have a decreased health-related quality of life. Often, they also experience such conditions as fibromyalgia, depression, or even colon cancer.

It is known that women with IBS are less physically active than healthy women, and that women with IBS who do participate in regular physical exercise experience less fatigue or bowel complaints. A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology takes this association one step further by testing whether increased physical activity decreases IBS symptoms, and whether it increases quality of life.

As it turns out, regular exercise—20 to 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 3 to 5 days per week—improved gastrointestinal symptoms and quality of life in people with IBS. The researchers recommend that physical activity be used as a primary treatment modality for IBS. 

I recommend exercise a lot because I believe it should be a part of everyone’s routine. It helps improve gut function, yes, but it also helps improve just about every area of health. So this week, if you or someone you know has IBS and you aren’t getting enough physical exercise, get moving. Find some form of exercise that makes you feel good, and just do it.

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The title of this article has been taken directly from the journal Gut Pathogens January 2011, and can be accessed for free at www.gutpathogens.com. This article tells the story of the gut connection. As we have been preaching for years, there is good evidence of a connection between gut bacteria and most (if not all) of the body organs, including the skin and brain.  What’s more, the above article presents much new, refined information, but the basic information is included from published references from 80-90 years ago!

Read, and be informed of the following concepts presented:

1.  The regular consumption of fat, sugar and simple carbs low in fiber, will decrease the beneficial bifidobacteria and other probiotic species in the colon and terminal small intestine (the end of the small intestine).

2.  Low  bifidobacteria allows increases of other bacteria that may promote colonic lining (epithelium) inflammation, with increased free radical damage and oxidative stress that leads to increased intestinal permeability (IP), or leaky gut.

3.  Increased IP leads to the passage (or translocation) of partially digested food particles, bacterial toxins, and other bacterial byproducts including fat (or lipids) from dead bacterial cell walls. 

4.  Bacterial cell wall lipids known as lipopolysaccarides (LPS), or also bacterial toxins, are easily measured in the blood, and are important indicators of how much overactivity will occur in the immune system.  Elevated LPS is very likely to occur after eating your favorite ice cream, or even too much bacon and eggs with toast and jelly (high fat, high sugar, and low fiber).

5.  Elevated blood levels of LPS cause the immune system to increase production of inflammatory markers (pro-inflammatory cytokines). These markers can cause many negative reactions, including decreased insulin receptor sensitivity, and thereby elevate blood sugar and insulin levels.

6.  Chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin promote increase in blood lipids, and  increase in inflammation which can contribute to acne, anxiety and depression, among other conditions.

Here is the good news,  a  high-fiber diet found in vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds and nuts, with some low glycemic fruits (especially berries) will promote high-normal levels of bifidobacteria. Taking prebiotic fibers was also shown in this article to increase bifidobacteria, and supplementing with bifidobacteria probiotics or fermented foods will definitely have overall beneficial effects on the body, including the skin and the brain. 

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 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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Ok folks, my weekly challenge involves a very interesting study from Boston University that I came across the other day that I want to share with you. The study looked at a technique known as expressive writing, which involves writing one’s thoughts and feelings about a certain issue. In this study, participants with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) expressed their thoughts and feelings about having IBS. They wrote for 30 minutes on four consecutive days.

Expressive writing was found to improve IBS severity and cognition in participants with longer-term duration of IBS. More studies are needed to confirm the potential for using this method in IBS treatment, but these preliminary results are hopeful.

It turns out that expressive writing has been found to be beneficial for a number of health conditions, like depression, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, chronic pain, chronic infection, and even length of hospital stay. How cool!

So, this week, if you are suffering from a chronic illness (especially IBS) take 30 minutes out of four days in a row to record your thoughts and feelings about it. Here is an excerpt from the instructions used in the study:

“…Feel free to really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts. You might tie your topic to your relationships with others, including parents, lovers, friends, or relatives, to your past, your present, your future, or to who you have been, who you would like to be, or who you are now…”

So get out a pen and paper (or your laptop) and let it all out. It may just make you feel better in the long run.

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What if there was a better, safer way to help people we love who are suffering from depression, anxiety, even insomnia? What if we could find a way to deal with addiction—from everyday food cravings to a need for alcohol and even drugs—that focused on the body as a whole rather than just the symptom? Well, guess what? When it comes to your health, everything’s connected—and nobody knows that better than Dr. Rick Sponaugle, founder of Florida Detox® and my guest on tomorrow’s Poop Scoop.

Join me and Dr. Sponaugle to learn more about the link between hormonal imbalance and how it affects the body’s brain chemistry and may contribute to a wide range of physical and emotional disorders, especially in women. A pioneer in the field of addiction treatment, Dr. Sponaugle is changing the way “brain” conditions are treated and has seen incredible breakthroughs using natural therapies to balance brain chemistry, correct nutritional deficiency, and balance the body’s hormones. If you or someone you love suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia or addiction, don’t miss what Dr. Sponaugle has to say about the remarkable treatment techniques that can accelerate your recovery.

Log on and listen to Brenda’s Poop Scoop LIVE every Wednesday from 4-5 pm (EST) right from your computer. Missed an episode? Visit the Episode Directory on my website and listen to past shows from the archive!

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No matter where you live in the U.S., you can’t turn on the TV or pick up a paper these days without hearing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig at the end of April, roughly a million gallons of oil have been leaking into the ocean every day—putting the total number at more than 50 million gallons.

Still, while much of the focus has been on the surrounding wetlands and wildlife, little has been said about the oil spill’s effect on the human population. Like just how toxic is all that oil? And how is it going to affect not only the cleanup workers but the people living in the nearby communities? Well, it seems I’m not the only one who’s been wondering.

In a workshop arranged by the Institute of Medicine and held in New Orleans last month, medical researchers came together to discuss the toxic effects of oil spills on humans. Along with short-term effects like skin rashes, nausea, headaches and respiratory issues—common among cleanup workers exposed to crude oil—they looked at possible long-term effects such as cancer, especially with regard to children who are “less efficient at detoxifying and metabolizing chemicals” says Dr. Brenda Eskenazi at the University of California Berkeley.

Not only that, but experts looked at how oil spills like the one in the Gulf affect not just physical health but mental health, citing evidence of increased depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which can contribute to serious health problems such as heart attack, high blood pressure and other related issues. Pretty scary stuff, if you ask me.

The bottom line is that the whole situation is devastating, and even though it may be easier to just not turn on the TV or read the news, the more we learn about what’s happening in the Gulf and how we can make a difference—no matter how small—the more we can begin to take steps toward a safer, healthier future for all. My prayers go out to all those who have been affected by the oil spill, and I can only hope that the recent efforts to contain it will be successful.

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