The Gut Microbiome Part 1

A Crash Course on the History of Medicine

• Pre-1930: The average lifespan was 30-35 years. Major causes of death were viral and bacterial infections.

• 1928: Penicillin is discovered, ushering in Medicine 2.0. Lifespan increased to 65-70 years thanks to antibiotics, antivirals, and vaccines.

• Industrial Revolution: Food became more processed and preserved. Our food became a playground for food scientists to research what food manipulations would affect society to buy more of it. This was and is still the era of marketing and increasing the bottom line. Labelling foods as “healthy” (because a healthy food doesn’t actually need a label), adding more sodium to foods to increase the flavour, creating flavorings and colorings to appeal to the tastebuds and to trick the mind into wanting more, literally altering your dopamine system in the brain, inhibiting your GLP1 secretions and leading to the rise of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. 

• Fast forward to 2024, and these issues are more prevalent than ever. Children UNDER THE AGE OF 8 are being prescribed insulin for pre -diabetic conditions. Read that again. Its Shocking. 

• Babies are being born (let me repeat that… BEING BORN) with fatty liver disease…. translation: Babies are being born in the clinical diagnostic category of OBESITY. (South Africa was actually part of this trial, scary to think) 

But there’s hope! About 20 years ago, some pioneering doctors weren’t happy with the rising death rates from diseases that appeared to be related to lifestyle, rather than life threatening bacteria and viruses,  identified these issues as Metabolic Diseases and began studying the bacterial species in the gut. 

Why did Americans gain weight at the speed of lightning sipping on diet soda’s, suffer with debilitating obesity in a first world citizenship, while the Hadsa tribes in Africa who were eating once a day suffered NO diseases besides “old age”?  

Curious to understand, scientists headed down to Africa and lived with the tribes to observe their nature of fasting, walking 10 – 21km per day, living in community, and eating unflavored food prepared over fire and prepared with Real Foods.  

They collected samples from these tribes….and yes, I mean they collected their stool samples. 

And this, was the early stages leading to the Gut Microbiome Project.

A New Look into the Gut Microbiome, Medicine 3.0. 
Scientists discovered microscopic living bacteria in the samples. The obvious question was: Why were they there?

Turns out the little buggers are incredibly helpful for the human physiological process we now call : The Immune System. 

These bacteria feast on the food that YOU are eating. 

After feasting, they secrete their waste product called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). 

SCFAs boost cytokine production, which in turn activates our immune system. 

This means it’s crucial to keep these bacteria—known as probiotics or microbiota—alive and thriving by feeding them foods that they like. Sound Familiar? (Personally, I also thrive when I eat the foods I like.)

 By playing this role in our immune process, they help us fight infections, reduce inflammation, and eliminate toxins.

Meet Your New Best Friends
Think of your circle of friends. 

They support you when you’re happy, excited, productive and living your best life. 

And they’re also there when you’re sad, demotivated, down and out.  

The microbiome is just like that. 

Some of their names are Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, Staphylococcus, E. coli, Salmonella, Enterococcus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis and THOUSANDS MORE. 

In the right quantities, they’re beneficial, but in high doses, they can be  harmful.

Your body hosts about 139 trillion bacteria, with 50 trillion of them residing in your intestines. The rest are on your skin, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and for females, the vaginal tract.
They protect you from environmental pathogens, toxins in the air, bugs on your food et cetera. 

Think of a septic tank system, no matter how much shit goes in, if you keep the bacterial balance in good stead, the septic tank works. 

It is EXACTLY the same as your intestines. 

Start to put toxic items into the system, and it starts to build up (constipation) 
 

When the saying goes, You are what you eat, it is more accurately meant to read: You are what your bacteria eat. 

You can think of the colonies of bacteria as a whole organ on its own, functioning to help you keep your body alive. 

If you had no bacteria and no microbiome, well, you will likely be that guy that lived in a bubble in a that movie…. yeah, you know which one I am talking about. 

So that’s Part 1 – That’s your first crash course on gut health! I hope it made sense. If not, send me your questions, and I’ll answer them in tomorrow’s lesson.
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And I did promise to provide you with some handy resources too, so here’s a podcast by experts leading research in this important topic. 

Tim Spector is one of my most favorite researchers. 

Please do enjoy! 

Bless you all, and thank you for your interest in individualizing your health!