Gut Microbiome Health

Welcome to Season 2 of the Health Made Easy Podcast.  I am Dr. Helen Watt MD. MPH, and today's topic has become fairly mainstream within the last two years, which is the subject of Gut Health. 

In today's episode, I'm going to discuss the few recent studies that focus on gut microbiomes; that is the good bacteria that help us in the gut and how to best take care of your own gut microbiome. 

There have been huge compilations of people groups for the quoted risks per age of the exposure to antibiotics in early childhood, teen years, young adults (20-30s) and in midlife.  Studies have even broken down the antibiotic exposure numbers to what the risk percentage for kidney stones would be depending on the age.  As there are many new antibiotics that are developed and FDA approved almost daily, these values will hold for about 2 years as prescribing habits will change.

The culprit antibiotics are broad spectrum penicillins, fluoroquinolones, nitrofurantoin, cephalosporins, and sulfas.  Most of these people were followed for 6 or more years. Kidney stones are also related to natural foods and ultraprocessed foods that are eaten which will be listed, in part, later on.  

 

Kidney stones were most highly associated in young kids and in teenagers, especially girls 52% more than boys. This was found in The Journal of American Society of Nephrology.Dec. 2018.  All the above antibiotics kept the association to kidney stones  except for the Penicillins, for 5 years after the cessation of these drugs.  

 

IBS (Inflammation of the bowel syndrome) and colorectal cancer (CRC)  have been studied relative to oral antibiotics.  Our gut has been pegged as our second brain due to the bacteria within that help with vitamin synthesis, protect the gut lining integrity and aid in digestion, as long as the diversity of the bacteria remains and the good bacteria do not get overwhelmed by the ”bad” bacteria. The latter often happens due to the use of oral antibiotics. There is a direct relationship of increasing numbers of courses of oral antibiotics to the increasing risk for IBS;

1 course with increased risk of 27%  to 4 courses with 96 % increased risk for IBS.

The colon microbiome is most likely hurt by the above listed antibiotics; however, fluoroquinolones, the broad spectrum penicillins, and metronidazole, especially, were implicated in the development of colorectal (CRC) says a study published in Dig.Dis.Sci. 2016 Jan:16 (1) 255-264. In the following year, the journal GUT. April 4, 2017; 67 (4): 672-678, reported mid-life aged females with history of oral antibiotics use for 2 or more months were found to have increased risk for colon polyps 69% vs no polyps in the similarly matched group who did not have oral antibiotics.

Fluoroquinolones have been correlated with Achilles tendon detachment or tear for many years now.  What is almost as commonly known now is the tears in the larger blood vessels, like Aortic dissection;  collagen is the primary tissue type that is inappropriately being harmed. There is a FDA warning about when NOT to use any fluoroquinolones (common ones being Cipro and Levaquin) : patients with a family history of Aortic aneurysm, Marfan Syndrome ( poor collagen in whole body), patients over 65 years of age, those with HBP and atherosclerotic vessel disease.

The lack of gut microbiome diversity seems to have shown up in the last 20-30 years. This is

being caused by many things-not just the oral antibiotics that do harm to both good and bad gut bacteria.  Processed foods designed for absurdly long shelf-life are harmful enough to diminish the variety and number of gut bacteria.  It was the Cleveland Clinic who researched the effect of ‘popular’ C-section deliveries seriously diminishing colon bacteria diversity in 2017. And as it turns out, Oxalates in our foods cause many chronic disease problems that correlate with poor gut microbiome such as:

Rash, poor wound healing, fibromyalgic and joint pain, interstitial cystitis, dental plaque, cataracts, near-sightedness, poor night vision, easy bruisability, calcium deposits, moodiness, tremors and the “dropsies”.  The gut can be helped by avoiding  high oxalate containing foods like the ultraprocessed but surprisingly oxalate is in many ‘super greens’,  (spinach is the highest, followed by almond and peanut butters, almond milk, dark chocolate, potatoes, squash-green and yellow, wheat and rice brans, fructose/high fructose corn syrup, lecithin, water with chlorine and/or fluoride, and food additives such as carrageenan, xanthan gum, food  emulsifiers, polysorbate 80).  Taking in minerals like Calcium (especially calcium citrate) and magnesium while eating fresh, organic foods with oxalates will help pull the oxalates out of the body- Basic IM and its companion capsules, Auramin, are also able to pull out oxalates, they’re easy to obtain and use daily: text to 602-919-6620 to order.  

One way to replenish the gut flora is to consume grass-fed kefir, Kim Chi (fermented napa cabbage), other fermented foods- natto, sprouted seeds, fiber, and Jerusalem artichoke (furry skin), and oral probiotics.  With a good colon hydrotherapist, a proper amount of gut flora can be implanted after treatment. Vit B3 was verified in a study in the July ‘23 issue of Nutrients. 15 (13): 2992.  Because Vit B3 converts to NAD+ which is directly used in the Krebs cycle to produce ATP; Vit B3 could be used to treat and possibly prevent IBS since it has been shown this disease process  involves cbb mitochondrial dysfunction.