What happens between the time you put food in your mouth and it comes out the other end? The entire human body is quite literally made up of this food, these vitamins, minerals and nutrients. That means you are what you eat. Considering the human body is made up of approximately 100 trillion cells and on average 500 billion cells turn over every day, I want to leverage this fact. When you think about the fact that nutrition is literally information for your cells, you realize that you have a lot of control over your physical body. This is empowering!
The seminar was taught by Merrily Kuhn, a Ph.D in Physiology who went on to become a Naturopathic Doctor as well. Someone with an in depth understanding on human biology. It was sponsored by the Institute for Brain Potential. Brain Potential? you might ask.... Well, when realize that the food you eat can cause you to have 'leaky gut' which can result in a 'leaky brain' or inflamed brain, it makes sense why this Institute was the sponsor of such an event.
So, let's break it down..... What did I really learn?
Understanding the Gut Brain
What is the gut brain?- An extension of the main brain, literally.
- The Enteric Nervous System, or the nervous system responsible for control over the gut, evolves from the same embryonic tissue as your Central Nervous System (CNS), or brain.
So why do we look at it?
- There are 3 to 5 pounds of bacteria in your digestive tract. Anywhere from 300 to 2000 different species
- 63 million people have chronic constipation in America
- 2 million people have gluten sensitivity
- 90% of your immune system is tied to your gut
- 90% of neurotransmitter serotonin is formed in the gut (responsible for mood, appetite, sleep)
The gut does NOT need to be told what to do ... it already knows what to do!
- The gut is autonomous - it's own boss.
- 'Gut feeling' is not just a figurative expression, but a literal expression. Trust your gut - because the nervous system of the gut has not evolved yet to have self-doubt.
- Creates its own thoughts
- Many stem cells in intestine to create new villi, the "plush carpet of the gut"
- New layer of gut lining every 3 to 7 days.
Are you interested yet? Keep reading!
Bacteria in the gut responsible for many functions... regulation of immune system, hormone levels, etc... Depending on the type of bacteria we have in the gut, can express itself through our physiology. Obese individuals have a completely different microbiome than a lean individual.
- Bacterioides = "peace makers" to regulate good/ bad ratio of gut bacteria (also known as microbiome).
Since the gut and liver are tied together via portal vein.... you can test digestive health by examining ALT and AST which are levels of liver enzymes (aspartate transaminase or alanine transaminase). This is because if the digestive system is compromised, toxins can be released into the blood and filtered through the liver, placing strain on this hepatic system. Quite literally... if you have a 'leaky gut', you have a 'leaky brain'.
An example of how the gut influences the brain is through its ability to convert tryptophan into 5-HTP, which is then sent to the brain to be converted into, ta-da, serotonin. Previously, we did not understand why SSRIs did not treat depression. SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which is used as treatment to increase extracellular levels of serotonin by blocking its reuptake on the presynaptic cell, so that it can be bound to the postsynaptic receptor. Basically, there are is more of the neurotransmitter available to help regulate the mood positively. The problem is that some people could not improve their mood through using SSRIs as treatment for depression, and at first we did not understand why. Well, what if an unhealthy gut prevents tryptophan in the gut from being converted in 5-HTP, which is the first step of the process before serotonin is created? This is what happens... This is also why we see yeast infections being a catalyst for depression, as yeast is a bad bacteria and can really disrupt the healthy gut ecosystem.
Does the gut influence your brain as much as we think?
- 1 in 6 kids in America today are learning disabled- 1 in 9 have asthma
- 1 in 50 live births, vs. 1 in 88 back in 2012 and 1 in 100,000 back in 1980 (fewer and fewer live births... what are the implications of this?)
- 1 in 400 diabetic
Doctors have shown that junk food being consumed during pregnancy is linked to an average lower IQ by the age of 8.
So what does all this mean? Well, where do you think you get the bacteria population in your digestive tract, if you are born sterile? Your mother! In fact, your mother's vaginal during a birth canal live birth, vs. unfriendly bacteria on her skin or picked up in the environment during a C-section birth. That is why the statistic for live births going doing is so alarming, as we are seeing more and more disease popping up. We've also seen that breastfeeding helps to deliver the appropriate beneficial microorganisms into a baby's gut, but that the practice of breastfeeding is rapidly going down! We are spending more than ever on health related practices, and as a nation we are getting weaker and sicker. I believe this can all be linked to the problems disrupting our inner ecology - the ecosystem of our digestive tract. Processed food, food allergens, environmental toxins, pathogens, antibiotics, pharmaceutical drugs, lack of proper birth or breastfeeding, inappropriate food in infancy, and various other things all have a part to play in destroying the natural digestive process we have fine tuned for millions of years as a species... This all make sense when you ties almost all of this stuff to modern day, man-made manifestations... Even stress can negatively affect the gut!
The Gut has feelings....
- Pain signals are sent from the viscera, or internal organs. Brain cannot pinpoint where exactly pain is coming from, for example you will experience gallbladder issues as pain in your shoulder.- If the gut is inflamed, it sends CRF (cortico-tropin releasing factor/hormone) message to brain, which then goes to adrenal cortex = we are stressed! Resulting in an increase of cortisol
Remember that the gut bacteria consumes EVERYTHING and chooses what to keep and absorb. So how do we ensure that the right bacteria hangs out there, and beats out the bad guys? The primary way is through diet. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing. It is a good thing because we have a modicum of control over it. The bad thing is, the food we eat today is of terrible quality. When 90-95% of a major crops are genetically modified (GMO), and we are realizing that GMOs have an impact on our gut bacteria, it gets scary. When we have high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or monosodium glutamate (MSG) in almost everything we eat, and these things are linked to inflammation or neurotoxicity, it is sad.
What is in our food, that is causing this shift towards an unhealthy inner digestive system?
- Bread today, almost all GMO- Bread contains Potassium Bromate, which allows bread to hold more air and be fluffier, also contains L-Cysteine which is an amino acid found in hair, responsible for increasing the density.
- Bread that is unbromated and no l-cysteine, it will go bad very soon.
- Natural flavors found in many, many different shelved foods, can be derived from anything. In fact, look out for 'raspberry natural flavors' (found in yogurt, etc). This is derived from beaver anal juice. Yes, you read that right.
- Chicken nuggets contain breast silicone
- Apples average age in the supermarket = 14 months. They are dipped in DPA (a derived of petroleum) and stored in cold. That is why all the apples you see in the supermarket look 'shiny'. Ever seen one like at hanging on the tree??? After 3 months of storage it loses all its antioxidant potential...
- Animals we eat, such as beef, chicken and pork, are given 4x as many antibiotics as humans and fed GMO corn and soy, which rapidly diminishes the animal's health. They develop antibiotic resistance which could be then transferred to us when we consume them. This is why it is very important to eat 100% organic, grass-fed beef and free-range chicken breast. The conditions of these feedlots is terrible.... and we continue to eat an increasing amount of this grain-fed beef, amounting to a total of 52.2 million pounds of it in the year of 2012, on an upward trend. In fact, chicken has recently overtaken beef for yearly pounds of consumption, and the quality of those feedlots is
How does Stress impact the Gut?
- When stressed, bacteroides fall by 20-25%... Remember, these are the good guys.
How does Gluten impact the Gut?
- Gliadin protein in gluten - placed in wheat as a GMO back in the 60s- Binds to opiate receptors, and can increase appetite, averaging 440 more calories a day.
- Wheat yields 10x more per acre with the new wheat we use (including being sprayed with Roundup known as glyphosate)
- In order for us as humans to properly digest gluten, we must be ruminant animals (which have multiple stomachs, such as cows or horses).
- Zonulin is the gatekeeper/ traffic cop regulating intestinal permeability to allow things in and out
- Gluten increases Zonulin levels, and a single dose of gluten can increase it for a week or more
When there is too much zonulin, we get a leaky gut. High levels of zonulin keep the gates open and allow undigested food particles and proteins into the blood. Remember that there are two branches of the immune system - adaptive immune system and innate immune system. The adaptive system works by remembering the identity of pathogens and foreign invaders to the body so that they can surmount the appropriate defense next time they are encountered. This fact presents a problem when random food particles not fully digested and proteins that are not completely broken down into their tiny parts (amino acids), float in the blood, and we see them as a potential life-threatening attack. Since we do not recognize the invader, we pump out various antibodies in an attempt to destroy the home invasion with no real success. Instead we just end up inflamed and weakened.
Another interesting fact is that we see people with Celiac disease have higher levels of zonulin. Along with this, we see higher incidences of various ailments such as diabetes, multiple scerlosis, Addison's disease, and other autoimmune dysfunctions. Can leaky gut be culprit?
So how do we regulate a healthy gut ecosystem?
- Fermented food chelate and detoxify heavy metals and toxins from the gut- Appropriate food choices, eliminating things like caffeine, alcohol, sugar
- Eating proper pre and probiotic foods
- Testing for food intolerances and sticking to foods right for you (this may mean eliminating dairy, soy, gluten)
- Avoiding GMOs, antibiotics, pharmaceutical drugs, and other stressors of the gut.
- Chlorine filter on shower??? Destroys gut bacteria....
Avoiding environmental toxins, such as arsenic found in rice, can help you with your gut bacteria. Arsenic is an environmental toxin sprayed on rice crop 50 years ago, and has remained in soil. This is just one example of the exposure we have to toxins. Babies are born with an average of 250 toxins in their urine. Things like BPA (Bisphenol A) which are found in many packaging materials are pretty much bad for everything...
Recent findings in epigenetics say that 35% of our physiology is determined by our genetics, while 65% is determined by environment. The genes load the gun, and your genetics pull the trigger. This ratio has continued to increase towards being more heavily weighted on the environment side. In several years time it could be 30/70, or 20/80. I believe someday we will inevitably realize that genetics have a very minimal role to play (if any) in the creation of who we are, provided we can resolve with the past. Since our cells are constantly turning over, they are 'remembering' the previous experience of that cell. You are, quite literally, redefining yourself repeatedly throughout your life time. The 'you' that is reading this sentence is not the same 'you' that finished it. And the baked holiday treats you ate for a week straight are quite literally the raw materials being assembled into the new 'you' as we sit here.
It is mind blowing to think that we have this incredibly complex, thinking, feeling system that functions separate from our main operating system, living within us with its very own ecosystem. It makes sense that when this delicate ecosystem becomes polluted with chemicals, allergens, and hard to digest matter, we become sick and weak.
A take away from this for everyone should be the empowering fact that we are more or less in control of our physiology. We can repopulate our gut with the good guys, remove the bad guys, and be healthier and quite literally happier. I suggest everyone think about this as they transition into the new year. What will you do to improve your health this year? When you realize that health primarily begins in the gut, you realize that you can make incredible progress by healing here.
I have learned so much from your blog. I love that I found it. I am sorry to see you stopped it over a year ago.
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