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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 Most people have a difficult time making the association between what is going on in the gut and health problems in other parts of the body. I help them connect the dots so that they can achieve better health. I help them get started on The Road to Perfect Health.

The Road to Perfect Health begins in the gut (your digestive system). If your digestive system is not healthy, the rest of you is typically unhealthy in some way.

Sure, you know that conditions like heartburn, gas, bloating and indigestion are related to your gut. But did you know that conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, skin conditions, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even arthritis are all related to the gut? It’s true. And I have seen it in so many people, including myself.

There are many different factors contributing to chronic illness that begin in the gut, but one primary factor is gut microbial balance. You need the proper balance of gut bacteria. I call it your “GPS”—your Gut Protection System. Your GPS is made up of 100 trillion bacterial cells. In fact, the bacterial cells in your gut outnumber the cells in your entire body by 10 to 1! That’s right, there are 10 times more gut bacteria than all the rest of the cells that make up your body.

The beneficial bacteria in your gut are known as probiotics. Probiotic means, literally, “for life.” Pro means “for” and biotic means “life.” This is in contrast to “antibiotic” (“against life”). The most common and most widely studied probiotic bacteria are what I call the L’s and the B’s—Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Lactobacillus bacteria are most associated with the little (small) intestine, and the Bifidobacteria are mostly found in the big (large) intestine, or colon. Having the right balance of good bacteria (more good guys than bad guys) is essential on The Road to Perfect Health.

For more information on how your GPS can help you return to perfect health, check out my new PBS show, The Road To Perfect Health. Check your local PBS listings for show times.

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“It is possible for a person to be too clean for their own good.” This is a recent quote from Allison Aiello, visiting associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard, who is studying the effect of frequent handwashing with antimicrobial soap containing triclosan, or 2,4,4’-trichloro-2’-hydroxydiphenyl ether. Her research has shown an increase in allergies and hay fever in children and teens with chronic use of soap products containing triclosan.

Handwashing with a powerful soap containing triclosan brings up two questions:

1. What is the effect of chronic removal of hand bacteria? We know where these hands go, especially in children (the mouth, for starters).

2. What could this chemical be doing to our body from a metabolic/hormonal perspective?

My input:
1. Science has now discovered that people normally have over a 1000 different species of bacteria not only in our intestinal tract, but also on our skin. This fact points out the normal symbiotic balance with microbes that we have evolved with for millions of years. The human/microbe symbiosis is especially important in childhood immune development. Research and clinical observations support the “Hygiene Theory,” which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious and symbiotic microorganisms and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases (like allergies, asthma, dermatitis, and autoimmune diabetes) by disrupting the natural development of the immune system. Children living in non-industrial countries and closer to nature generally don’t have these problems.

2. Triclosan is also used in toothbrushes, ice-making machines, and in pesticides! This type of exposure has led to research by concerned individuals who have now shown significant evidence that it is yet another toxin with hormone-disrupting qualities which could majorly affect immunity. Due to the increase in negative evidence, the FDA has decided to thoroughly investigate triclosan, but not until 2013—a decade earlier than previously planned!

So what are the solutions? First, take a high quality probiotic and also make your own cultured foods. We may soon find topical probiotics could be beneficial, as well. Second, find safe soaps and use them mostly after exposure to public places. Safe soaps (or hand sanitizers) can be found at www.ewg.org, under cleansing products – hand sanitizers. Third, get involved in social networking by joining “green”groups to help educate and promote the changes we desperately need.

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/triclosan_fs.htm

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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Probiotics are now being considered for use in treating many digestive (and even non-digestive) health conditions and diseases. Two such diseases in which probiotics have been studied are the inflammatory bowel diseases ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. These conditions involve chronic inflammation of the intestines. Crohn’s disease primarily involves the lower small intestine, but may involve the entire digestive tract. Ulcerative colitis involves the rectum and large intestine, or colon (hence the name colitis—meaning inflammation of the colon).

A recent double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study found that in addition to standard treatment, a high-potency, multistrain probiotic improved symptoms. Equally important, it also improved appearance of the colonic mucosal lining in patients with relapsing mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis compared to those patients only receiving standard treatment.

This is the strongest study to date on probiotics for ulcerative colitis and joins a growing body of evidence for their beneficial effects. Because ulcerative colitis is a serious disease, effective treatment is important. If you have ulcerative colitis, talk to your doctor about using probiotics. Want to learn more before you do? Tune in for my PBS Special The Road To Perfect Health, now airing on your local PBS station.

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If you’re reading this blog, chances are good you’ve heard of probiotics. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that are known for supporting digestive and immune health. From my perspective, probiotics are as important as a daily multivitamin and have many healing properties. I have seen so many people get well while taking probiotics.

When people think of probiotics, the first thing that comes to mind is usually yogurt. It’s true that all yogurt is cultured with probiotics, but not all yogurt contains live cultures in the finished product. This is because yogurt must be pasteurized, or heated, to kill off potentially pathogenic bacteria. Unfortunately, this also kills off the beneficial bacteria the yogurt was cultured with. Some yogurts do contain live cultures that are added back in after pasteurization. Next time you buy yogurt, be sure to look for the “live cultures” label.

The limitation of yogurt, however, is the amount of probiotics in yogurt—it’s low. It may not be enough, especially if your gut is out of balance. Unless you want to eat a gallon of yogurt each day, a probiotic supplement is best.

A recent study found that a high-potency (450 billion), multi-strain probiotic was able to ease irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms in children and adolescents who took the supplement for six weeks. This is a very high dose, but it can take that much (even in children) in certain conditions to rebalance the gut.

On the other hand, a lower dose (even that found in yogurt) can be beneficial for certain health concerns. Another recent study found that a particular probiotic yogurt containing Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis decreased cholesterol and increased HDL (“good”) cholesterol in women when eaten for six weeks.

It’s a fact: Bacteria are everywhere. It’s just a matter of striking the right balance. Yet another study found that household dust even contains up to 1,000 different microbe species per gram! (No wonder no one likes to dust!) We can only do so much to reduce our daily exposure to harmful toxins and pathogens, but we can do a lot to improve our health by choosing the right foods and nutrients to optimize the body’s functions.

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Our friends at Nutraceutix were just honored with the 2010 Technology Innovation of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan, a global research firm that recognizes best-in-class practices and achievements in many industries. They won for their patented LiveBac process, which when combined with Bio-tract® delivery system, helps ensure that Renew Life’s FloraSMART™ line of probiotics are delivered right to the intestines where they are most effective.

Why the standing ovation? Well, probiotics are only effective if they can withstand the harsh conditions in the stomach to be absorbed in the intestines. Once in the intestines, they can help replenish helpful bacteria as well as strengthen immunities and support overall digestive health. Bio-tract technology is an advanced delivery system that creates a protective natural gel around each probiotic caplet to protect it from gastric acid, thus delivering more active probiotic cultures to the intestines over an optimal time frame.

And that means better overall digestive health! After all, 70 percent of the body’s immune defenses reside in the intestines. If the probiotics can’t make it there, they can’t do much good. If delivered intact where they can work their magic in the intestines, they can lead to optimal digestion, bowel regularity, and overall well being.

Hats off to Nutraceutix for building a better way to manufacture and deliver probiotics. Renew Life and our millions of customers thank you daily!

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When you’re pregnant it seems like everyone has some important bit of advice to give—do this, eat this, stay away from this—but really the keys to good health during pregnancy are a lot like any other day: follow a healthy diet and lifestyle, and the benefits are sure to follow. So the other day when I came across a story about how probiotic supplements could provide added benefits for pregnant women and their babies, I wasn’t surprised at all.

Scientists in Finland recently followed more than 250 expectant moms to look at how taking probiotics during pregnancy (and afterwards while breastfeeding) may help with healthy blood sugar and preventing gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is another name for women who experience high blood sugar levels during pregnancy even though they’ve never had diabetes before, and it affects over 100,000 women in the U.S. every year!

All of the women in the study were considered healthy and had no history of chronic disease, and their daily diet was closely monitored by a nutritionist. But now for the really interesting part: about half of the women received a daily probiotic supplement with a combination of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria (those important L’s and B’s!), and those women had improved blood glucose control, which translated into fewer cases of gestational diabetes as well as healthy fetal and infant growth.

Now, I know I talk about probiotics all the time and how all those good bacteria in your gut play a BIG role in keeping your whole body healthy, but this just goes to show that the benefits of probiotics go way beyond just better digestion and a strong immune system. Because there’s been such a drastic rise in obesity and obesity-related disease in this country, researchers are excited about these study results and hope that starting probiotics early on in life will help to ensure a healthy body and weight in later years. More kudos for probiotics!

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Notable News – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that we don’t need our appendix and that it has no function. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand removing the appendix if someone has appendicitis (a potentially fatal inflammation of the appendix) but the appendix isn’t completely useless! Did you know that it actually plays an important role in digestive health?

Recently researchers have determined that the appendix acts as a safe storage area for good bacteria in the body—you know, the kinds that help with digestion and immune function? So after a case of diarrhea, or a bout of antibiotics, both of which wipe out populations of good bacteria, the bacteria hidden in the appendix can actually repopulate the colon and bring balance back to your digestive tract! 

It makes perfect sense, really. The appendix is a narrow tube that sits at the bottom of the first part of the large intestine (also called the cecum). A bacterial infection or antibiotics would easily bypass the appendix because of its small opening, so the beneficial bacteria inside would stay protected. But inside the appendix are still enough bacteria to repopulate the gut when needed… which is pretty important when you consider that chronic dysbiosis (or a lack of enough beneficial gut bacteria) can contribute to infection if bad bacteria reach the appendix and multiply. And what happens then? You guessed it! Appendicitis!

So take it from me, your appendix is important, and so is making sure you take probiotics every day to keep your digestive system in balance!

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Notable News – A few months back a study came out that found that the two most common (not to mention the most important!) types of healthy gut bacteria—Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli—were decreased in people on a gluten-free diet. My first thought was, “Oh great, now everyone is going to think the gluten-free diet is bad for you.” Not true!

The main difference between the gluten-free diet and the ‘normal’ diet in this study was the polysaccharide content (polysaccharides are just complex carbohydrates made of long chains of simple sugars). The gluten-free diet was lower in polysaccharides, which makes sense since polysaccharides often have a prebiotic effect. That means they nourish the good bacteria, or probiotics, and help them multiply, so a diet lower in polysaccharides might mean a decrease in the good bacteria that rely on them for food. But… THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD AVOID THE GLUTEN-FREE DIET! 

The gluten-free diet is essential for people who are gluten-sensitive or have a gluten allergy. And today more and more people are discovering that they’re sensitive to gluten and feel better on a gluten-free diet. So what should you do if you’re on a gluten-free diet but worried about a change in your gut bacteria? That’s easy—probiotics!

I can’t say enough about how important probiotics are. Not only do they help balance the good and bad bacteria in our intestines to help with digestion and immunity, but they also help to strengthen the protective intestinal lining, which can become damaged due to inflammation in people who are gluten-sensitive (including those with celiac disease).

So as the old saying goes, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! The gluten-free diet has helped so many people—the key is simply staying informed about the best ways to maximize your health when avoiding gluten.

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