Gut bacteria is in the news a lot lately. As an interesting side note, during one of Joe Rogan's podcasts someone mentioned that if you think of our digestive system as a tube connecting two holes in the body then everything inside of our stomach is external. I've never thought of it that way. Fascinating.
For anyone interested Joe's podcast is actually incredibly informative and dense with good information.
"Joe's podcast is actually incredibly informative and dense with good information."
If you want to be informed with what ever the latest pseudoscience/conspiracy fad is. Rogan has a reputation for his lack of critical thinking. Fake moon landing, 9-11 "truther" BS, chemtrails... all things he has pushed on his show. Oh yeah don't forget to buy stuff from his line of supplements too! Imo, he is nothing more than a meathead snake oil salesman that happens to be funny too.
I am glad to hear that, but if you are looking for an actual science podcast there is too much competition out there for one that has "improved a lot over the years", imo. I recommend "This week in microbiology" for the topic of the OP, btw.
his podcast is pure entertainment, he says so himself quite often. he makes fart and dick jokes and says dirty words and drinks liquor and smokes weed while on air.
if you take this seriously and are somehow indignant about the content or the sponsors, that's on you, not him.
"if you're looking for real science, then..." -- well no kidding dude. it's entertainment and can serve as a jumping off point to do your own research.
having said that his UFC content is really good, but you're probably not into that sort of thing, what with your 'meathead' pejorative which i guess you think is somehow cool because we like computers and supposedly shun exercise? that's cool i guess.
You are 100% correct, and if the article had been about how fart, dick jokes, and UFC was identified for the first time as a key factor in Chron's disease then perhaps your correctness would have a point related to the discussion.
I was just starting to get into his old podcasts when he was interviewing Bas Rutten and started saying how cutting out gluten made him a hundred times more healthy and fixed all his ailing woes. I couldn't believe some of the stuff he was saying it fixed. It was at least a bit funny because I guess Bas knew it was all BS since he uncharacteristically goes very silent while Joe peddles the anti-gluten bandwagon. I stopped listening after that.
There are so many good podcasts I can never get into, because they are often multiple hours per episode. Joe Rogan often on the 3 hour mark. How do people find time to listen/watch all the good content out there?
TL;DR is the zeitgeist, and I want to fight it. I want to read long form articles, books and listen to these great podcasts, but the number of hours in my day don't seem to allow it.
Do people set aside time? Am I just inherently bad at managing my time?
I listen to podcasts for at least 10 hours per week and I probably manage to listen to 20 hours of podcasts in that time. Most podcasts I listen to can be sped up to about 1.3x speed with no obvious loss in quality. Additionally I use a podcast app [1] that "removes audio gaps" which basically chops out "pauses" and "no sound" areas of the podcast.
I also use Overcast, whose "smart speed" feature is very good. As far as finding time goes, I spend about 90 minutes a day commuting by foot and light rail, which combined with a cheap Bluetooth earbud (check Amazon) makes for very reasonable listening time. Perhaps something similar would work with your daily routine.
> someone mentioned that if you think of our digestive system as a tube connecting two holes in the body then everything inside of our stomach is external.
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure this was said somewhere in the Chris Kresser, Joe Rogan Experience podcast episode #842.[0]
Mathematically, "inside" our stomachs and intestines are "outside" our body. They are also outside of our body by looking at epithelial tissue, which has an inside/outside orientation.
Topologically speaking, a human is a torus. Your digestive system is the hole in the doughnut.
Interestingly, this means in a two-dimensional world, an organism couldn't have a similar structure, since the digestive system would completely separate the animal into two halves.
Not to be obtuse, but wouldn't what is basically an anthropomorphic doughnut be fine in two dimensions? Or do you just mean that that would not likely be the digestive tract of such a thing?
But you can't have a doughnut in two dimensions either, the two sides would have to be separated by the hole or else it's not really a doughnut, it's just a circle without a digestive system.
Assuming we can ignore your septum and the roof of your mouth, your respiratory system is basically just an indentation in your head. From a topology perspective, it doesn't really exist. Your lungs are on the outside.
Reading the overview of this study - am I incorrect in thinking "correlation" not "causation" wrt the particular species of fungi (Candida tropicalis) and the biofilm produced being a key factor?
I don't know, but "lockstep" is a pretty darn strong correlation, with a solid hypothesis for a causative mechanism. I'll wait to see if the treatments actually work, but as someone with a friend who suffered from this, I'm excited.
You're correct. The linked story is PR and overstates the findings. As you can see by the researchers' statements they are far more cautious at stating causation.
I couldn't find an ungated copy, but this is in the abstract:
The abundance of the fungus Candida tropicalis was significantly higher in CD than in NCDR (P = 0.003) samples and positively correlated with levels of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA). The abundance of C. tropicalis was positively correlated with S. marcescens and E. coli, suggesting that these organisms interact in the gut.
All we know about correlation level from this is r > 0.
My college roommate had Crohn's and it was... brutal just to see what it did to him. I remember spending some time in our dorm room helping him get some Ensure down one time, and he told me how scared he was of ending up in a wheelchair with a colostomy and so on.
I worked with a young guy that suddenly found out he had it. He started feeling ill, then pain, and wound up in the hospital for some time. He didn't know he had it: I know for a while he wound up with a colostomy bag as his colon healed, and was looking at a lifetime of restricted eating and other such things.
To make matters worse, his long-term girlfriend/fiance left him while he was in the hospital.
I wish I knew what happened to him. He wound up moving out of state to stay with his parents as he got better, and basically cut most folks out of his life at that time.
test-tube research by the Ghannoum-led team found that the three work together (with the E. coli cells fusing to the [Candida tropicalis] cells and S. marcescens forming a bridge connecting the microbes) to produce a biofilm -- a thin, slimy layer of microorganisms found in the body that adheres to, among other sites, a portion of the intestines -- which can prompt inflammation that results in the symptoms of Crohn's disease.
That seems like a huge find. Biofilms can be very hardy and difficult to break down. I wonder what a treatment for something like this would be.
A traditional mixture could consist of pau d'arco, wormwood, black walnut bark, clove, and garlic. This is used often in Native-American/Indian/Chinese-Medicine.
man, i'm not a doctor, and i dealt only with smaller issue - candida overgrowth - and thus it may be related, if there is any relation at all (again i'm not a doctor), only as long as candida is related to Crohn's. So take it as a personal anonymous anecdote you read on Internet :)
For candida overgrowth for me there were 2 parts - dietary changes and antifungals.
Dietary changes. While being a heavy consumer of breads and pastries, i stopped eating white bread and similar yeast and sugar rich stuff from the stores. Found a good Russian and German bread instead, and sometimes enjoy their pastries. And whole wheat bagels. Gives me that carbohydrate fix. Several years ago, for moral reasons, i stopped eating pork, lamb and beef, and accidentally it helped too as the US beef seems to be a stuff that candida likes, at least it was liking it in my case. And also i did a bunch of other small changes in those general directions, increasing greens/veggies consumption and in general similar to what the other poster says about "good" and "bad" foods/drinks (except for coffee, still drink it though it is more neutral than "good" or may be even a bit toward "bad" for me). Also based on my experience, in particular with letting go of heavy meats and eating more greens/veggies, i believe the other guy who mentioned veganism though myself i haven't been able to make such big of jump.
Antifungals. I didn't went medical antifungals as they are heavy on liver and the reported results from various Internet accounts aren't better than natural antifungals. There are a lot of natural antifungals, and it is more about what works for you personally. I tried apple cider vinegar, garlic, virgin coconut oil, ginger. All of them work to a good degree, initially better, after some time the fungi seems to adapt somewhat. The mix of those natural antifungals seems to work the best. I didn't really liked the coconut oil. So i ended up with daily regiment of double dose of garlic pills (i like the real garlic, yet the smell is an issue at home and work), several cups of ginger tea during the day at work, and 2 table spoons of apple cider vinegar 2 times a day (of course diluted in a cup of water or just used as a dressing for a large cucumber/tomato/greens/etc. salad. Also that dose is a result of my personal experience, i started with 1 or 2 table spoons per cup of water 3-4 times a day, it worked for me, yet dosing down and adding ginger and garlic instead worked even better, and one would want to be easy on vinegar). Frequently instead of the diluted vinegar i drink Kevita - apple juice with the apple cider vinegar with ginger with probiotic - works better than the equivalent volume of diluted vinegar alone, in particular because probiotic is extremely important in dealing with candida.
One of the main things that i learned - it took me couple of months to work out the regiment once i set out on fixing the issue - is that it is very individualized and require some careful experimentation and observation.
yeah, they all have the effects of reducing removing sticky substances inside the body. I guess modern day mixtures simply mix the best of both regions into one concoction.
Be kind. Consider that they meant "what people have been trying since the 1970s when health food stores popped up everywhere" when they say "traditional". There is nothing despicable about trying to experiment on your own to cure an ailment. It's a type of hacking
Oh, please. Too much acetaminophen and alcohol does the same thing when the general public tries to hack happiness and pain. The public covers that all the time
The hacking is fine. Passing it off as a "traditional" cure through appelation to the cultural cachet associated with Exotic Others is not; it's naive at best and actively disingenuous at worst.
Kindness should not function as a free pass to allow people to spread falsehood.
This is good news. I like how they identified a precise mechanism that might contribute to it. Maybe eliminating at least one of these three in the body might knock out or reduce the condition. Depends on if other stuff is involved.
Biofilms are nasty stuff. I did part of my master's thesis on them. They group together and communicate with each other (with electrical grids, according to Dr. Costerton, one of the forefront researchers of biofilms before he passed away). Some species use the film to coordinate a certain percentage of bugs stay in a "dormant" state, so they won't intake an antibiotic and die.
For artificial joints like a hip and a knee joint, you have a lot of exposed materials like titanium, stainless steel, or medical polymer, so it doesn't have an immune system. Getting a biofilm infection forming on an artificial joint sometimes means taking the implant out, even if it's working fine.
So biofilms are a tough problem. They're far more sinister than conventional bacterial colonies. Since this is in the digestive tract, I wonder if some type of detergent can be found that simply dissolves the film matrix, washing away the bacteria and fungi.
I had one form in my mouth after overexposure to an antifungal. It has resisted several rounds of antibiotics including Cipro. Nasty stuff. As far as I know it's unique to me, so if you know any grad students who want a mouth swab let me know.
That's really interesting. I haven't learned about the biofilm aspect of this disease before.
And, I guess the biofilm in this case is especially tough. From the abstract:
The mass and thickness of triple-species (C. tropicalis plus S. marcescens plus E. coli) biofilm were significantly greater than those of single- and double-species biofilms.
You can mess yourself up pretty badly by damaging your microbiome; this is why antibiotics often cause gastric distress.
On the other hand, something like Crohn's means your microbiome is already damaged, or at least not optimized to make a positive contribution to your health. Fecal transplants from healthy donors have shown promise in similar circumstances; if you're interested in treatments for such conditions, that might be a good place to look.
It's a actually having an immune condition and/or Crohn's that made me nervous about trying that. Im concerned about my body having a permanent reaction to it like some implants cause. Id be interested in data that eliminates that possibility.
I don't know what to suggest in that regard, since I'm not actually a researcher in the field. But I have known a few people who've had remarkably good results with the fecal transplant process, and no one who's had an adverse reaction. That doesn't mean much, of course, but it may well be worth discussing the matter with your doctor, just in case it might be worth considering in your case.
Wondering the same thing, from my understanding UC is a variation of Chrons. Although I've personally found it pretty easy to manage after my initially attack in my early 20s. But I've heard Chrons is different and treatment is much more diet-based. Whereas with Colitis there doesn't seem to be a connection to nutrition (yet).
Crohn's is best understood as a collection of symptoms than an actual diagnosis, because -- this article being a case in point -- the underlying etiology isn't understood. For example, treatments that work on Crohn's patients in Japan don't work on US patients, indicating that the diagnosis is covering multiple disorders.
Interesting. I believe HIV has a similar issue? Where a weakened immune system causes a bunch of other illnesses and cancers.
The doctors told me UC is the immune system overreacting and damaging the colon. So it's still possible it's correlated to the bodies microbiome. But as you mentioned it could be very person/ethnic-specific.
The gold standard protocol in Japan has traditionally been exclusive enteral nutrition, but Crohn's in western countries has generally been refractory in studies. Japanese remission rates are reported in the 70-90% range, so it's a pretty significant finding.
The Royston Vasey Journal of Culinary Medicine also had some intriguing results from a meat-based therapeutic diet, but the control population disappeared before conclusive results could be drawn.
Ah. Yes. I'm familiar with that RVJCM "study." Supplied the raw ingredient you know.
I told them: don't blend this with anything else. My special stuff isn't hamburger helper is it now? Bloody doctors. They should have listened when they had the chance.
"Furthermore, we found strong similarities in what may be called the 'gut profiles' of the Crohn's-affected families, which were strikingly different from the Crohn's-free families."
It seems that fecal transplant (or pills based on them) can alter/fix gut profiles[1]. I wonder if someone tried fecal transplant to cure Cron's disease.
Edit:
It seems this has been tried and pretty successful[2].
"A recent publication in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases titled, “Fecal Microbial Transplant Effect on Clinical Outcomes and Fecal Microbiome in Active Crohn’s Disease,” reports seven of nine patients with Crohn’s disease were effectively treated using FMT in a Seattle Children’s research study."
If I remember correctly there was another study a few years back in europe (by Prof Raedler?) which was not as effective. Will try to dig it up tomorrow, I'm too sleepy right now.
I read in another article that Fungus has been neglected in medical pathology research:
> As of November 2015, only 269 of more than 6,000 Web of Science search results for the term “microbiome” even mention “fungus,” and the scientific search engine returns only 55 papers pertaining to the “mycobiome.”
> Despite this lack of attention, a handful of recent studies point to the importance of our commensal fungal inhabitants as critical players in human health and disease.
In my experience Crohn's bacteria, and now apparently fungi, love to feed on processed sugars and dairy products.
To stay in remission, I focus on diet and exercise, and deny the bacteria the fuel they require (at least, that's my theory).
Big pharma has largely focused on alleviating the inflammatory symptoms of auto-immune response. Treating the symptoms and not the cause unfortunately allows the vicious cycle to continue.
I hope discoveries like this will encourage more Medical Professionals to pursue preemptive dietary, naturopathic, and lifestyle remedies for managing Crohn's.
However, these remedies are not profitable, so I'm not optimistic :-(
would love to hear more about your experiences and how your diet influences 'good' and 'bad' choices to stay in remission or go into in the first place.
I wish there were more "absolute" rules. There are so many dietary exceptions. Here are a few I live by to manage Crohn's.
Water: Probably the #1 most important thing for Crohn's patients to manage is water consumption. Bottled water whenever possible. More specifically, the more alkaline the better. Tap water, unless you live in the mountains, is commonly bad on the digestive tract.
Fried food: Generally "bad", but food fried with certain oils seems to be okay. The oil needs to be fresh. Fried food from fast food chains is always "bad".
Sugars: Complex sugars are "bad". Monosaccharide sugars, found in fruits or honey, are okay.
Vegetables: "Good" when steamed. But undigested raw veggies increases risk of triggering an auto-immune response. I eat small salads... ideally chef salads with some protein (ham/bacon/turkey).
Fruits: Similar to veggies, only small portions. Don't let roughage linger in digestive system too long.
Dark Chocolate: 80%+ cocoa in moderation tends to be okay. The endorphin rush is a plus and a good substitute for coffee.
Popcorn: Definitely off limits. Auto-immune response triggers when the body detects undigested kernels.
Dairy: Odd mix. Milk is extremely "bad". Won't even touch it. So is milk chocolate. Eggs are okay if used in cooking, but I avoid eating plain eggs for breakfast. Butter and many gourmet cheeses are fine (processed cheese is "bad").
Coffee: I drink a lot of coffee. Probably too much. The water, beans, and preparation process all contribute to coffee being "good" for Crohn's. Coffee becomes "bad" if there are any additives, such as dairy or sugar. Not even dairy substitutes, like soy, can be added.
Meats: Okay in moderation, but lately I've been cutting back on red meats after learning more about increased risk of colon cancer in Crohn's patients. High quality beef burgers and fish are common staples.
Alcohol: I abstained from drinking for many years when first diagnosed with Crohn's, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could introduce many "top shelf" brands in moderation without any real symptoms. I've learned a lot about the distillation process of wines and spirits as a result. There are such things as "good" and "bad" alcohol.
Craft Beer: Similar to above, there are "good" and "bad" beer yeasts and fermentation processes. It's very hit or miss, but when I discover a craft beer that "works" with my digestive system, I stick with it. Lagunitas is an example of a beer that happens to be "good" with my gut bacteria.
Thanks for sharing, I have UC and am always looking to see what others are doing. I know There are differences but I suspect the root cause is similar.
To add some anecdotal evidence to the mix: a good friend of mine suffers from Crohn's disease and hasn't had a flair up since becoming vegan over 6 years ago.
I have a friend who suffered from Crohn's (he had surgery and he's better), but he managed it with diet. I have IBS and my GI specialist recommended specific diet changes (along with a referral to a dietician) as well as drugs.
Maybe we can finally begin to take a closer look at naturopathic remedies. The key to killing fungus in humans is to a) deny their fuel source through diet and b) strengthen the human system by proper carb/fat/protein ratio, essential oils, and healthy fats (omega 3/6/9, medium-chain saturated fats, etc).
That might be an approach, though it would be helpful to see citations (not that improving diet is a bad idea in general). There are also drugs like Lufenuron [1] which is a chitin synthase inhibitor (fungi make their cell walls from chitin, while mammals don't synthesize chitin at all).
To the extent that naturopathic remedies actually work, that fact is easily demonstrable through the scientific method, and they become known as just "remedies" rather than "naturopathic remedies."
I'm so happy to see the increase in gut microbiome research lately, as someone suffering from an immune-related colitis. There's very clearly a correlation with anti-microbial and microbe-influecing things (pepto bismol, herbal antimicrobial supplements, and probiotics) and my general well being, but let's just say it's very difficult to get specialists to focus on anything other than treating symptoms.
The microbiome matters a whole lot, and it's starting to become clear how. These are great developments and I hope to see the trend continue.
Gut microbiome seems to be linked to many diseases. My knowledge in biology and medicine is next to zero, but I was wondering if the following would be a feasible strategy:
* collect many samples from people with various symptoms
* do metagenomic sequencing on these samples to find what
species are present in which samples
* machine learn the s--t out of this to find associations/correlations
* ...um, profit?
What would be the main problem on this way? Cost? Reliability of sequencing? Correlation not implying causation? Me talking nonsense?
This finding, from what I understand, connected Crohn to the presense of three species working together to form a microfilm. Would not that be something to be found with the method like this?
You'd also want to analyze the genomes of each individual from which the samples were taken, particularly for immune factors. While no one has figured out exactly why specific gene variants such as HLA-b27 seem to be implicated in a number of autoimmune diseases, the associations are clearly there.
82 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 165 ms ] threadFor anyone interested Joe's podcast is actually incredibly informative and dense with good information.
If you want to be informed with what ever the latest pseudoscience/conspiracy fad is. Rogan has a reputation for his lack of critical thinking. Fake moon landing, 9-11 "truther" BS, chemtrails... all things he has pushed on his show. Oh yeah don't forget to buy stuff from his line of supplements too! Imo, he is nothing more than a meathead snake oil salesman that happens to be funny too.
if you take this seriously and are somehow indignant about the content or the sponsors, that's on you, not him.
"if you're looking for real science, then..." -- well no kidding dude. it's entertainment and can serve as a jumping off point to do your own research.
having said that his UFC content is really good, but you're probably not into that sort of thing, what with your 'meathead' pejorative which i guess you think is somehow cool because we like computers and supposedly shun exercise? that's cool i guess.
What good are your ideas if they can't stand up to being challenged by the ideas of others?
TL;DR is the zeitgeist, and I want to fight it. I want to read long form articles, books and listen to these great podcasts, but the number of hours in my day don't seem to allow it.
Do people set aside time? Am I just inherently bad at managing my time?
[1] https://overcast.fm/
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure this was said somewhere in the Chris Kresser, Joe Rogan Experience podcast episode #842.[0]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_2vNj8pshY
Interestingly, this means in a two-dimensional world, an organism couldn't have a similar structure, since the digestive system would completely separate the animal into two halves.
https://theinfosphere.org/2-D_Blacktop
The abundance of the fungus Candida tropicalis was significantly higher in CD than in NCDR (P = 0.003) samples and positively correlated with levels of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA). The abundance of C. tropicalis was positively correlated with S. marcescens and E. coli, suggesting that these organisms interact in the gut.
All we know about correlation level from this is r > 0.
More here: http://mbio.asm.org/content/7/5/e01250-16
To make matters worse, his long-term girlfriend/fiance left him while he was in the hospital.
I wish I knew what happened to him. He wound up moving out of state to stay with his parents as he got better, and basically cut most folks out of his life at that time.
That seems like a huge find. Biofilms can be very hardy and difficult to break down. I wonder what a treatment for something like this would be.
For candida overgrowth for me there were 2 parts - dietary changes and antifungals.
Dietary changes. While being a heavy consumer of breads and pastries, i stopped eating white bread and similar yeast and sugar rich stuff from the stores. Found a good Russian and German bread instead, and sometimes enjoy their pastries. And whole wheat bagels. Gives me that carbohydrate fix. Several years ago, for moral reasons, i stopped eating pork, lamb and beef, and accidentally it helped too as the US beef seems to be a stuff that candida likes, at least it was liking it in my case. And also i did a bunch of other small changes in those general directions, increasing greens/veggies consumption and in general similar to what the other poster says about "good" and "bad" foods/drinks (except for coffee, still drink it though it is more neutral than "good" or may be even a bit toward "bad" for me). Also based on my experience, in particular with letting go of heavy meats and eating more greens/veggies, i believe the other guy who mentioned veganism though myself i haven't been able to make such big of jump.
Antifungals. I didn't went medical antifungals as they are heavy on liver and the reported results from various Internet accounts aren't better than natural antifungals. There are a lot of natural antifungals, and it is more about what works for you personally. I tried apple cider vinegar, garlic, virgin coconut oil, ginger. All of them work to a good degree, initially better, after some time the fungi seems to adapt somewhat. The mix of those natural antifungals seems to work the best. I didn't really liked the coconut oil. So i ended up with daily regiment of double dose of garlic pills (i like the real garlic, yet the smell is an issue at home and work), several cups of ginger tea during the day at work, and 2 table spoons of apple cider vinegar 2 times a day (of course diluted in a cup of water or just used as a dressing for a large cucumber/tomato/greens/etc. salad. Also that dose is a result of my personal experience, i started with 1 or 2 table spoons per cup of water 3-4 times a day, it worked for me, yet dosing down and adding ginger and garlic instead worked even better, and one would want to be easy on vinegar). Frequently instead of the diluted vinegar i drink Kevita - apple juice with the apple cider vinegar with ginger with probiotic - works better than the equivalent volume of diluted vinegar alone, in particular because probiotic is extremely important in dealing with candida.
One of the main things that i learned - it took me couple of months to work out the regiment once i set out on fixing the issue - is that it is very individualized and require some careful experimentation and observation.
https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/gpa/ancient-solution-mo...
But if the Chron's is happening from a poor diet/lack of exercise, that will be easier to troubleshoot.
If its a candida overgrowth, https://www.humaworm.com/candida---fungi-cleanse.html but they may have parasites (see Gu article above) in which symptoms (some present in Chrons) can appear: https://www.humaworm.com/symptoms-of-parasites.html They provide this formula: https://www.humaworm.com/humaworm-formula---dosing.html
many other companies sell similar concoctions on amazon, but these guys seem to have the best reputation.
Goodluck, everyone is unique so its not as simple as debugging a computer process haha.
Black walnut is from North America. Wormwood is from Eurasia and Africa.
Kindness should not function as a free pass to allow people to spread falsehood.
For artificial joints like a hip and a knee joint, you have a lot of exposed materials like titanium, stainless steel, or medical polymer, so it doesn't have an immune system. Getting a biofilm infection forming on an artificial joint sometimes means taking the implant out, even if it's working fine.
So biofilms are a tough problem. They're far more sinister than conventional bacterial colonies. Since this is in the digestive tract, I wonder if some type of detergent can be found that simply dissolves the film matrix, washing away the bacteria and fungi.
And, I guess the biofilm in this case is especially tough. From the abstract:
The mass and thickness of triple-species (C. tropicalis plus S. marcescens plus E. coli) biofilm were significantly greater than those of single- and double-species biofilms.
From: http://mbio.asm.org/content/7/5/e01250-16
On the other hand, something like Crohn's means your microbiome is already damaged, or at least not optimized to make a positive contribution to your health. Fecal transplants from healthy donors have shown promise in similar circumstances; if you're interested in treatments for such conditions, that might be a good place to look.
The doctors told me UC is the immune system overreacting and damaging the colon. So it's still possible it's correlated to the bodies microbiome. But as you mentioned it could be very person/ethnic-specific.
The Royston Vasey Journal of Culinary Medicine also had some intriguing results from a meat-based therapeutic diet, but the control population disappeared before conclusive results could be drawn.
I told them: don't blend this with anything else. My special stuff isn't hamburger helper is it now? Bloody doctors. They should have listened when they had the chance.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24614898
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/health/alzheimers-disease-...
It seems that fecal transplant (or pills based on them) can alter/fix gut profiles[1]. I wonder if someone tried fecal transplant to cure Cron's disease.
[1] https://youtu.be/e_dF1N-Ckbw?t=1m44s
Edit: It seems this has been tried and pretty successful[2].
"A recent publication in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases titled, “Fecal Microbial Transplant Effect on Clinical Outcomes and Fecal Microbiome in Active Crohn’s Disease,” reports seven of nine patients with Crohn’s disease were effectively treated using FMT in a Seattle Children’s research study."
[2] http://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/study-suggests-fecal-trans...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4209544/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3974513/
> As of November 2015, only 269 of more than 6,000 Web of Science search results for the term “microbiome” even mention “fungus,” and the scientific search engine returns only 55 papers pertaining to the “mycobiome.”
> Despite this lack of attention, a handful of recent studies point to the importance of our commensal fungal inhabitants as critical players in human health and disease.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45153/...
Hopefully this type of research will help with a large variety of illnesses.
To stay in remission, I focus on diet and exercise, and deny the bacteria the fuel they require (at least, that's my theory).
Big pharma has largely focused on alleviating the inflammatory symptoms of auto-immune response. Treating the symptoms and not the cause unfortunately allows the vicious cycle to continue.
I hope discoveries like this will encourage more Medical Professionals to pursue preemptive dietary, naturopathic, and lifestyle remedies for managing Crohn's.
However, these remedies are not profitable, so I'm not optimistic :-(
Water: Probably the #1 most important thing for Crohn's patients to manage is water consumption. Bottled water whenever possible. More specifically, the more alkaline the better. Tap water, unless you live in the mountains, is commonly bad on the digestive tract.
Fried food: Generally "bad", but food fried with certain oils seems to be okay. The oil needs to be fresh. Fried food from fast food chains is always "bad".
Sugars: Complex sugars are "bad". Monosaccharide sugars, found in fruits or honey, are okay.
Vegetables: "Good" when steamed. But undigested raw veggies increases risk of triggering an auto-immune response. I eat small salads... ideally chef salads with some protein (ham/bacon/turkey).
Fruits: Similar to veggies, only small portions. Don't let roughage linger in digestive system too long.
Dark Chocolate: 80%+ cocoa in moderation tends to be okay. The endorphin rush is a plus and a good substitute for coffee.
Popcorn: Definitely off limits. Auto-immune response triggers when the body detects undigested kernels.
Dairy: Odd mix. Milk is extremely "bad". Won't even touch it. So is milk chocolate. Eggs are okay if used in cooking, but I avoid eating plain eggs for breakfast. Butter and many gourmet cheeses are fine (processed cheese is "bad").
Coffee: I drink a lot of coffee. Probably too much. The water, beans, and preparation process all contribute to coffee being "good" for Crohn's. Coffee becomes "bad" if there are any additives, such as dairy or sugar. Not even dairy substitutes, like soy, can be added.
Meats: Okay in moderation, but lately I've been cutting back on red meats after learning more about increased risk of colon cancer in Crohn's patients. High quality beef burgers and fish are common staples.
Alcohol: I abstained from drinking for many years when first diagnosed with Crohn's, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could introduce many "top shelf" brands in moderation without any real symptoms. I've learned a lot about the distillation process of wines and spirits as a result. There are such things as "good" and "bad" alcohol.
Craft Beer: Similar to above, there are "good" and "bad" beer yeasts and fermentation processes. It's very hit or miss, but when I discover a craft beer that "works" with my digestive system, I stick with it. Lagunitas is an example of a beer that happens to be "good" with my gut bacteria.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufenuron
The microbiome matters a whole lot, and it's starting to become clear how. These are great developments and I hope to see the trend continue.
* collect many samples from people with various symptoms
* do metagenomic sequencing on these samples to find what species are present in which samples
* machine learn the s--t out of this to find associations/correlations
* ...um, profit?
What would be the main problem on this way? Cost? Reliability of sequencing? Correlation not implying causation? Me talking nonsense?
This finding, from what I understand, connected Crohn to the presense of three species working together to form a microfilm. Would not that be something to be found with the method like this?
Fungi play an interesting role in these systems.