Source: Medicare, taking more than one medication and needing home health service
Medicare, taking more than one medication and needing home health service
If your love one has Medicare, taking more than one medication and needs special care, call 408-854-1883 or 408-605-2663 ( or email motherhealth@gmail.com ) if you need a visiting nurse from a home health agency. Aside from nurses you can also be visited by physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and medical social worker.
We can refer you to a Home Health Agency in the bayarea. For caregivers, Motherhealth Inc can provide you with caregivers.
Types of patients appropriate for home health:
- Newly-diagnosed medical conditions or complex, debilitating symptoms which require skilled monitoring and/or health teaching
- Pressure ulcers
- Newly-diagnosed or poorly controlled diabetes
- Bed bound patients requiring teaching of family to manage dependent patient
- Medications requiring monitoring (anticoagulants, antihypertensives, cardiac meds, analgesics, chemotheraputic agents, etc.
- Need for exercise to improve ambulation, mobility, independence, safety, circulation, or preparation for prosthesis
Aside from Medicare, we also serve patients in Medi-Cal and Alameda Alliance.
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Ask you doctor if you can benefit from a home health service with so many other visiting therapists listed above.
We would like to connect with all geriatric doctors, family physicians, and home health agencies in the bayarea to be included in our list of providers as reference documents for all bayarea seniors for 2015 and 2016. Email your contact, service and email/tel to motherhealth@gmail.com
About Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease
About Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease
Similarities of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease
In taking care of my senior client with Parkinson’s and Dementia, I noticed the past and present health issues: constipation, metal toxicity (skin,hair,eyes) as shown in the body, lack of iron, magnesium and potassium, excess sugar consumption, low levels of Dopamine, intestinal health issues and high levels of anxiety/stress. She had been caring for her husband who is bed-bound for 10yrs and her siser just recently died.
Each day, I find ways to bring her to good health thru massage, whole foods and herbs (turmeric, ginger,rosemary,eucalyptus oil), information, company/conversation and 10-hr caregiving from Motherhealth caregivers in the bayarea ( 408-845-1883 , motherhealth@gmail.com)
Her major health issues include intestinal health, immune system, vision, memory and prescription medications overload. Her Azheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are aggravated by more than 10 medications and 1 narcotic which affected her brain size (shrinking). We know that the third cause of deaths in the USA is prescribed medications.
Dopamine level in Parkinson is low
Parkinson’s disease is associated with low levels of Dopamine. Our intestinal gut produces dopamine which is a neurotransmitter. Common symptoms include mood changes, focus issues, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, and, in particular, compulsive overeating resulting in weight gain. As a brain neurotransmitter, dopamine influences well being, alertness, learning, creativity, attention and concentration. Dopamine also affects brain processes that control movement, emotional response and is the source of the brain’s power and energy.
Foods highest in L-tyrosine (natural building block of Dopamine) include:
- Fava beans
- Duck
- Chicken
- Ricotta cheese
- Oatmeal,
- Mustard greens
- Edamame
- Dark chocolate
- Seaweed
- Wheat germ
Effect of heavy metals toxins in our thyroid
Even the names of the different forms of thyroid hormone reflect the number of iodine molecules attached — T4 has four attached iodine molecules, and T3 (the biologically active form of the hormone) has three — showing what an important part iodine plays in thyroid biochemistry.
Iodine deficiency is one of the three most common nutritional deficiencies, along with magnesium and vitamin D.
Since iodine is so important for thyroid function, wouldn’t you expect to see an increase in hypothyroidism with insufficient iodine levels? Yes, and that is exactly what we have seen.
This means that your thyroid problem could actually be an iodine deficiency problem. If you feel sluggish and tired, have difficulty losing weight, have dry skin, hair loss, constipation or cold sensitivity, it could all be related to hypothyroidism.
More than 100 years ago, iodine was shown to reverse and prevent goiter (swelling of your thyroid gland) and to correct hypothyroidism. But we now understand that iodine’s effects are much farther reaching.
Iodine has four important functions in your body:
- Stabilization of metabolism and body weight
- Brain development in children
- Fertility
- Optimization of your immune system (iodine is a potent anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, anti-viral and anti- cancer agent)
- While iodine levels have fallen, there have been simultaneous increases in rates of thyroid disease, breast cancer, fibrocystic breast disease, prostate cancer, and obesity in American adults, and an increase in mental retardation and developmental delays in American children.
Why are Iodine Levels Dropping?
Iodine deficiency is on the rise in the United States. Simple supplementation may not be the answer as the following issues also need to be addressed.
Recent national survey data suggest that just over 11 percent of the total U.S. population, and over 7 percent of pregnant women, and nearly 17 percent of all reproductive-aged women, are deficient in iodine.
The Total Diet Study, performed by the FDA, reported an iodine intake of 621 µg for 2 year-olds between 1974 and 1982, compared with 373 µg between 1982 and 1991. During this same time period, the baking industry replaced iodine-based anti-caking agents with bromine-based agents.
In addition to iodine’s disappearance from our food supply, exposure to toxic competing halogens (bromine, fluorine, chlorine and perchlorate) has dramatically increased.
You absorb these halogens through your food, water, medications and environment, and they selectively occupy your iodine receptors, further deepening your iodine deficit.
Fluoridation of water is a major contributor to iodine deficiency, besides being very damaging to your health in many other ways.
Additional factors contributing to falling iodine levels are:
• Diets low in fish, shellfish and seaweed
• Vegan and vegetarian diets
• Decreased use of iodized salt
• Less use of iodide in the food and agricultural industry
• Use of radioactive iodine in many medical procedures, which competes with natural iodine
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease can have multifactorial causes from metal toxins (metals in white flour,chlorine,fluoride,mercury,aluminum,others), lack of important nutrients such as Vit D, Calcium and Magnesium,stress,insomia,sugar,and other hormonal and metabolic causes.
We have to nourish our bodies each day with whole foods, oxygen,water,light energy,and positive emotions.
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Contact Connie at Motherhealth Caregivers for bayarea caregivers 408-854-1883 motherhealth@gmail.com for 24/7 care for your seniors.
5 Steps to Kill Hidden Bad Bugs in Your Gut that Make You Sick by Dr Mark Hyman
5 Steps to Kill Hidden Bad Bugs in Your Gut that Make You Sick by Dr Mark Hyman
DOCTORS ARE TRAINED TO IDENTIFY DISEASES by where they are located. If you have asthma, it’s considered a lung problem; if you have rheumatoid arthritis, it must be a joint problem; if you have acne, doctors see it as a skin problem; if you are overweight, you must have a metabolism problem; if you have allergies, immune imbalance is blamed. Doctors who understand health this way are both right and wrong. Sometimes the causes of your symptoms do have some relationship to their location, but that’s far from the whole story.
As we come to understand disease in the 21st century, our old ways of defining illness based on symptoms is not very useful. Instead, by understanding the origins of disease and the way in which the body operates as one, whole, integrated ecosystem, we now know that symptoms appearing in one area of the body may be caused by imbalances in an entirely different system.
If your skin is bad or you have allergies, can’t seem to lose weight, suffer from an autoimmune disease or allergies, struggle with fibromyalgia, or have recurring headaches, the real reason may be that your gut is unhealthy. This may be true even if you have NEVER had any digestive complaints.
There are many other possible imbalances in your body’s operating system that may drive illness, as well. These include problems with hormones, immune function, detoxification, energy production, and more. But for now, let’s take a deeper look at the gut and why it may be at the root of your chronic symptoms.
Symptoms Throughout the Body Are Resolved By Treating the Gut
Many today do have digestive problems including reflux or heartburn, irritable bowel, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and colitis. In fact, belly problems account for over 200 million doctor’s visits and billions in health care costs annually. But gut problems cause disease far beyond the gut. In medical school, I learned that patients with colitis could also have inflamed joints and eyes and that patients with liver failure could be cured of delirium by taking antibiotics that killed the toxin-producing bacteria in their gut. Could it be that when things are not quite right down below, it affects the health of our entire body and many diseases we haven’t linked before to imbalances in the digestive system?
The answer is a resounding yes. Normalizing gut function is one of the most important things I do for patients, and it’s so simple. The “side effects” of treating the gut are quite extraordinary. My patients find relief from allergies, acne, arthritis, headaches, autoimmune disease, depression, attention deficit, and more—often after years or decades of suffering. Here are a few examples of the results I have achieved by addressing imbalances in the function and flora of the gut:
- A 58-year-old woman with many years of worsening allergies, asthma, and sinusitis who was on frequent antibiotics and didn’t respond to any of the usual therapies was cured by eliminating a worm she harbored in her gut called Strongyloides.
A 52-year-old woman who suffered with daily headaches and frequent migraines for years, found relief by clearing out the overgrowth of bad bugs in her small intestine with a new non-absorbed antibiotic called Xifaxin.
A six-year-old girl with severe behavioral problems including violence, disruptive behavior in school, and depression was treated for bacterial yeast overgrowth, and in less than 10 days, her behavioral issues and depression were resolved.
A three-year-old boy with autism started talking after treating a parasite called Giardia in his gut.
These are not miracle cures but common results that occur when you normalize gut function and flora through improved diet, increased fiber intake, daily probiotic supplementation, enzyme therapy, the use of nutrients that repair the gut lining, and the direct treatment of bad bugs in the gut with herbs or medication.
A number of recent studies have made all these seemingly strange reversals in symptoms understandable. Let’s review them.
Research Linking Gut Flora and Inflammation To Chronic Illness
Scientists compared gut flora or bacteria from children in Florence, Italy who ate a diet high in meat, fat, and sugar to children from a West African village in Burkina Faso who ate beans, whole grains, vegetables, and nuts.(i) The bugs in the guts of the African children were healthier, more diverse, better at regulating inflammation and infection, and better at extracting energy from fiber. The bugs in the guts of the Italian children produced by-products that create inflammation, promote allergy, asthma, autoimmunity, and lead to obesity.
Why is this important?
In the West, our increased use of vaccinations and antibiotics and enhancements in hygiene have lead to health improvements for many. Yet these same factors have dramatically changed the ecosystem of bugs in our gut, and this has a broad impact on health that is still largely unrecognized.
There are trillions of bacteria in your gut, and they collectively contain at least 100 times as many genes as you do. The bacterial DNA in your gut outnumbers your own DNA by a very large margin. This bacterial DNA controls immune function, regulates digestion and intestinal function, protects against infections, and even produces vitamins and nutrients.
Can bacteria in the gut actually affect the brain? They can. Toxins, metabolic by-products, and inflammatory molecules produced by these unfriendly bacteria can all adversely impact the brain.
When the balance of bacteria in your gut is optimal, this DNA works for you to great effect. For example, some good bacteria produce short chain fatty acids. These healthy fats reduce inflammation and modulate your immune system. Bad bugs, on the other hand, produce fats that promote allergy and asthma, eczema, and inflammation throughout your body.(ii)
Another recent study found that the bacterial fingerprint of gut flora of autistic children differs dramatically from healthy children.(iii) Simply by looking at the by-products of their intestinal bacteria (which are excreted in the urine—a test I do regularly in my practice called organic acids testing), researchers could distinguish between autistic and normal children.
Think about this: problems with gut flora are linked to autism. Can bacteria in the gut actually affect the brain? They can. Toxins, metabolic by-products, and inflammatory molecules produced by these unfriendly bacteria can all adversely impact the brain. I explore the links between gut function and brain function in much greater detail in my book, The UltraMind Solution.
Autoimmune diseases are also linked to changes in gut flora. A recent study showed that children who use antibiotics for acne may alter normal flora, and this, in turn, can trigger changes that lead to autoimmune disease such as inflammatory bowel disease or colitis.(iv)
The connections between gut flora and system-wide health don’t stop there. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that you could cure or prevent delirium and brain fog in patients with liver failure by giving them an antibiotic called Xifaxan to clear out bugs that produce toxins their poor livers couldn’t detoxify.(v) Toxins from bacteria were making them insane and foggy. Remove the bacteria that produce the toxins, and their symptoms clear up practically overnight.
Other similar studies have found that clearing out overgrowth of bad bugs with a non-absorbed antibiotic can be an effective treatment for restless leg syndrome(vi) and fibromyalgia.(vii)
Even obesity has been linked to changes in our gut ecosystem that are the result of a high-fat, processed, inflammatory diet. Bad bugs produce toxins called lipopolysaccardies (LPS) that trigger inflammation and insulin resistance or pre-diabetes and thus promote weight gain.(viii)
It seems remarkable, but the little critters living inside of you have been linked to everything from autism to obesity, from allergy to autoimmunity, from fibromyalgia to restless leg syndrome, from delirium to eczema to asthma. In fact, the links between chronic illness and gut bacteria keep growing every day.
So what can you do to keep your gut flora balanced and your gut healthy, and thus overcome or avoid these health problems?
Five Steps to a Healthy Gut (and a Healthy Body)
Follow these five simple steps to begin re-balancing your gut flora:
- Eat a fiber–rich, whole foods diet—it should be rich in beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, all of which feed good bugs.
- Limit sugar, processed foods, animal fats, and animal protein—these provide food for unhealthy bugs.
- Avoid the use of antibiotics, acid blockers, and anti-inflammatories—they change gut flora for the worse.
- Take probiotics daily—these healthy, friendly flora can improve your digestive health and reduce inflammation and allergy.
- Consider specialized testing—such as organic acid testing, stool testing (new tests can look at the DNA of the bacteria in your gut), and others to help assess your gut function. You will likely have to work with a functional medicine practitioner to effectively test and treat imbalances in your gut.
And if you have a chronic illness, even if you don’t have digestive symptoms, you might want to consider what is living inside your gut. Tending to the garden within can be the answer to many seemingly unrelated health problems.
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below—but remember, we can’t offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
References
(i) De Filippo, C., Cavalieri, D., Di Paola, M., et al. 2010. Impact of diet in shaping gut microbiota revealed by a comparative study in children from Europe and rural Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 107(33): 14691–6
(ii) Sandin, A., Bråbäck, L., Norin, E., and B. Björkstén. 2009. Faecal short chain fatty acid pattern and allergy in early childhood. Acta Paediatr. 98(5): 823–7.
(iii) Yap, I.K., Angley, M., Veselkov, K.A., et al. 2010. Urinary metabolic phenotyping differentiates children with autism from their unaffected siblings and age-matched controls. J Proteome Res. 9(6): 2996–3004.
(iv) Margolis, D.J., Fanelli, M., Hoffstad, O., and J.D. Lewis. 2010. Potential association between the oral tetracycline class of antimicrobials used to treat acne and inflammatory bowel disease. Am J Gastroenterol. Aug 10 epub in advance of publication.
(v) Bass, N.M., Mullen, K.D., Sanyal, A., et al. 2010. Rifaximin treatment in hepatic encephalopathy. N Engl J Med. 362(12): 1071–81.
(vi) Weinstock, L.B., Fern, S.E., and S.P. Duntley. 2008. Restless legs syndrome in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: response to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth therapy. Dig Dis Sci. 53(5): 1252–6.
(vii) Pimentel, M., Wallace, D., Hallegua, D., et al. 2004. A link between irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia may be related to findings on lactulose breath testing. Ann Rheum Dis. 63(4): 450–2.
(viii) Cani, P.D., Amar, J., Iglesias, M.A., et al. 2007. Metabolic endotoxemia initiates obesity and insulin resistance. Diabetes. 56(7): 1761–72.
Get your probiotics at
http://www.teamasantae.com/clubalthea/
For cell repair at
http://www.gogyv.com/clubalthea/
Contact Connie for holistic caregivers for homebound bayarea seniors, Motherhealth Inc at 408-854-1833 (text) and motherhealth@gmail.com
Gut Bacteria May Influence Parkinson’s Risk
Gut Bacteria Influence Parkinson’s Risk , Vegan vs American diet
Vegan vs American diet
Researchers in Finland have discovered what could be an important clue to what drives Parkinson’s disease (PD). Their new study has shown a reduced abundance of the Prevotellaceae bacteria family in the gut microbiome of PD patients compared with healthy control persons.
Dr Filip Scheperjans
Although the new findings only “scrape the surface,” they “give us good reason to dig deeper,” said lead author Filip Scheperjans, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, and Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
If further research verifies that PD is caused by a diminished number of Prevotellaceae in the gut, boosting levels of these bacteria might slow the progression of the disease, or even prevent it.
Their findings are published in the March issue of Movement Disorders.
“Intriguing” Theory
“It’s an intriguing theory,” said Dr Scheperjans. “I think it’s something we will be looking at, because the ultimate goal of why we’re doing the study is that we want to find something that we can correct.”
However, perhaps a more pressing goal is to confirm that these changes in gut microbiome occur before patients develop PD.
It has already been shown that PD patients tend to have gastrointestinal dysfunction, particularly constipation, and that these symptoms may precede motor symptoms by several years. “So from a clinical point of view, we know that the gut is basically affected very early in PD, but we actually haven’t a clue really what is causing it,” said Dr Scheperjans.
According to background information in the article, the human body contains some 10 times more microbial cells than human cells, and these microbes carry about 100 to 200 times more protein- coding genes than the human genome. Almost all of these genes are of bacterial origin.
Intestinal microbiota influence the immune system and the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, medications, and toxic compounds.
There is mounting evidence of an intense bidirectional interaction between gut microbiota and the nervous system, influencing brain activity, behavior, and levels of neurotransmitter receptors and neurotrophic factors.
The new study included 72 PD patients (mean age, 65.3 years; 48.6% women), and 72 age- and sex-matched control individuals who were without signs of parkinsonism or potential premotor symptoms (mean age, 64.5 years; 50.0% women). The median time from motor symptom onset in PD patients was 5 years. All but two patients were receiving an antiparkinsonian medication.
The study excluded individuals living in the same household and so presumably having a similar diet.
From fecal samples collected from each study participant, researchers pyro-sequenced the V1-V3 regions of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene. They used random subsamples of 4500 sequences for analysis.
They found that the mean abundance of Prevotellaceae in the feces of PD patients was reduced by 77.6% compared with control individuals. This bacteria “is a normal inhabitant of the human gut,” with people having varying amounts of it, said Dr Scheperjans.
“It’s important to note that based on our data, PD patients have less of Prevotellaceae, but there were also controls who had low levels, so that alone doesn’t explain PD.”
The researchers did not find significant associations of bacterial abundances with age, body mass index, total Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, and time from motor or nonmotor symptom onset.
The decreased abundance of Prevotellaceae was not explained by more severe constipation in PD patients, although the abundance of other bacteria, but not Prevotellaceae, was associated with degree of constipation, or by differences in comorbidities.
Less abundance of the bacteria also was not affected by medications. Dr Scheperjans noted that the COMT (catechol-O-methyl transferase) inhibitor was the only PD drug that was associated with changes in the gut microbiome.
“That was interesting, because that drug causes GI side effects like diarrhea,” he said. “But we accounted for that in our analysis, so the basic finding of the difference between PD patients and controls is not explained by the medications that patients are using.”
The study showed that another type of intestinal bacteria ― Enterobacteriaceae ― was linked to the severity of postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD). These bacteria were significantly more abundant in patients with a PIGD phenotype than in patients with tremor dominant (TD) phenotype.
There is a wide variation in clinical manifestations in PD patients ― with some having mostly tremor, and others, rigidity ― and the question is whether these phenotypes represent the same disease. Itis possible, said Dr Scheperjans, that different PD subtypes are linked to different bacteria.
Dr Scheperans noted that it is not clear from this study whether the bacterial changes were present before patients developed PD or occurred after.
Role of Diet?
The role of diet is also not clear. Evidence in the literature does not suggest major differences between the diet of PD patients and that of other people, and studies of the impact on PD of particular nutrients or foods ― maybe with the exception of coffee ― have shown small effect sizes and contradictory results, said Dr Scheperjans.
What is known is that the level of Prevotellaceae bacteria increases when people consume foods high in fiber and certain carbohydrates ― for example, fruits and vegetables. And this bacteria has been found in oral plaque and has been linked to periodontal disease, although this could be a different strain of the bacteria.
“The difference between bacterial strains at the genetic level can be huge,” said Dr Scheperjans. “We don’t know if it’s the same bug that is healthy in the gut but bad in the mouth.”
Dr Scheperjans and his colleagues are now studying the dietary habits of patients and will be reporting on this later this year.
The idea that gut bacteria is involved in PD is intriguing, according to the authors. Alpha-synuclein, which is the hallmark protein for PD, has been found not only in the brain as the main component of Lewy bodies but also in the gut.
There is evidence, said Dr Scheperjans. that the alpha-synuclein “protein pathology” progresses “in a prionlike fashion,” migrating from the enteric nervous system to the central nervous system.
“There is a hypothesis that these pathological proteins can jump from one neuron to the next,” and that the vagal nerve is involved in the spread of the pathology, he said.
In the last 2 to 3 years, scientists have learned a lot about the presence and amount of these intestinal bacteria, “but we don’t know a lot about what they’re actually doing; that’s the next step,” said Dr Scheperjans.
To that end, he and his colleagues are following the study participants for 2 years to see whether the Prevotellaceae level continues to be reduced in PD patients or if it was just a temporary phenomenon.
“We’re specifically interested in seeing how they progressed,” said Dr Scheperjans. “We want to see if there’s an association between the microbiome configuration and disease progression.”
Remarkable Finding
In an accompanying editorial, a group of authors, including Alberto Espay, MD, University of Cincinnati, in Ohio, point out that the demonstration that selected bacterial populations could influence disease and phenotype “is a remarkable finding” and could have important implications.
“For starters, Scheperjans and colleagues have given us the opportunity to envision a future in which specific motor features of PD could be modified by controlling the relative populations of certain species of microbiota.”
In addition to helping to shape novel treatment paradigms, gut microbiota also have the potential to inform the understanding of the etiopathogenesis of PD, they write.
It is “tempting” to speculate that gut microbiota might be in the pathogenic pathway that determines disease phenotypes and is “poised to become a target” for disease-modifying pharmacology, they note. “Gut microbiota may even have a role explaining the differences in PD prevalence between rural and urban environments, between countries and perhaps even between sexes.”
The study could not rule out the possibility that PD itself may change the microbial composition of the gut ― instead of vice versa ― or even that a third factor, such as an environmental trigger, initiates both PD and microbiota changes. But the new information adds to the evidence suggesting “that this may be the beginning of a leap forward in our understanding of and treatment options for PD,” the editorialists conclude.
Dr Scheperjans is an inventor on a Finnish patent application. The editorial writers have reported no relevant financial relationships.
Mov Disord. 2015;30:350-358, 296-298. Abstract, Editorial
Get your probiotics at
http://www.teamasantae.com/clubalthea/
For cell repair at
http://www.gogyv.com/clubalthea/
Contact Connie for holistic caregivers for homebound bayarea seniors, Motherhealth Inc at 408-854-1833 (text) and motherhealth@gmail.com
How Gut Bacteria Supports a Healthy Weight and Long Life
Weight and the health of our gut flora
More and more research is emerging that draws a direct link between our weight and the health of our gut flora (including its role in the success of gastric bypass surgery), but this shouldn’t be a surprise. The connection has been known, and manipulated, for years by the agricultural industry.
Antibiotics—which kill the natural bacterial flora in the human body that influences how we break down and absorb the nutrients that help keep us lean and healthy—are known as growth promoters. Farmers have been using antibiotics for more than half a century to fatten cattle, pigs, and chickens. With the use of these medications, animals gain more weight more quickly, on less food. I’ll say that again: antibiotics stimulate growth with less food.
Food craving and weight loss
There is other research on the topic of weight and gut flora as well, two of the more interesting and recent pieces being related to how gut bacteria influence which foods we crave. Here are a few more examples:
Butyrate—one of the fatty acids produced by good gut bacteria—has been suggested to promote feelings of satiety (a feeling of fullness and satisfaction). (Nutr Rev 07;65(2):51–62) (Aliment Pharmacol Ther 08:27(2):104–119) This, obviously, can help prevent overeating.
Fermented milk
A Japanese company gave 87 overweight individuals 100 grams of fermented milk twice a day. The milk consumed by half the group contained the bacteria Lactobacillus gasseri. After 12 weeks, those individuals lost an average of 2.2 pounds—and there was no weight loss in the other group. (Eur J Clin Nutr 2010 March 10. [E-pub ahead of print PMID:20216555] Specifically, the participants lost 4.6 percent of their visceral fat (fat around the stomach) and 3.3 percent of their subcutaneous fat (fat just under the skin). Their hip circumference was reduced by 1.7 cm (almost ¾ of an inch) and their waist went down by 1.5 cm (just over ½ inch). Researchers feel that Lactobacillus gasseri somehow decreases the amount of fat absorbed from the intestines.
Antibiotics and Weight Loss
Researchers evaluated the use of antibiotics in 11,532 children born in Britain’s Avon region in 1991 and 1992. Almost 30 percent of the infants were given antibiotics sometime during the first six months of their life. By age 38 months, the children in the antibiotic group had a 22 percent greater likelihood of being overweight. (Int J Obes (Lond) 21 October 2012 [Epub ahead of print]) Antibiotics. Doing it at such a critical period of development, such as early childhood, has long-lasting effects.
How Gut Bacteria Contributes to Longer Life
The more diverse our bacterial flora is, the more effective it is and the better our overall health tends to be. To see this, you need look no further than a study that examined gut microbes in the elderly.
When researchers looked at the gut bacteria of 178 elderly individuals over the age of 65 (average age 78, none of whom were being treated with antibiotics), they found that the microbes varied extensively depending on where the individual lived and the state of their overall health.
The people who lived independently in the community had the most varied microbacterial flora and were the healthiest. People who lived in long-term assisted living homes had less diverse microbacterial flora and were frailer.
The research team, led by Paul O’Toole of University College Cork in Ireland, tied this difference to the diet of each respective group. Though the foods eaten by people who moved into long-term residential facilities changed immediately upon entry (becoming much more uniform and based on government-issued nutritional data), it took about a year for the profile of their bacteria to change. It was during that transition time when the individuals’ health started declining the most. What makes this study so intriguing to me is the speed at which a person loses his or her health to a decline in the numbers and variety of intestinal bacteria. The clear takeaway from this is that eating a varied diet that includes fermented foods is a key to maintaining gut flora and, by extension, strength and vitality.
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Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain function, UCLA study shows
Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain function, UCLA study shows
UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof-of-concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion-recognition task.
The study, conducted by scientists with the Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress, part of the UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases, and the Ahmanson–Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, appears in the current online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Gastroenterology.
The discovery that changing the bacterial environment, or microbiota, in the gut can affect the brain carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary or drug interventions to improve brain function, the researchers said.
“Many of us have a container of yogurt in our refrigerator that we may eat for enjoyment, for calcium or because we think it might help our health in other ways,” said Dr. Kirsten Tillisch, an associate professor of medicine in the digestive diseases division at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “Our findings indicate that some of the contents of yogurt may actually change the way our brain responds to the environment. When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘gut feelings’ take on new meaning.”
Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to the gut, which is why stress and other emotions can contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well.
“Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut,” Tillisch said. “Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street.”
The small study involved 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55. Researchers divided the women into three groups: one group ate a specific yogurt containing a mix of several probiotics — bacteria thought to have a positive effect on the intestines — twice a day for four weeks; another group consumed a dairy product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics; and a third group ate no product at all.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans conducted both before and after the four-week study period looked at the women’s brains in a state of rest and in response to an emotion-recognition task in which they viewed a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces and matched them to other faces showing the same emotions. This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors.
The researchers found that, compared with the women who didn’t consume the probiotic yogurt, those who did showed a decrease in activity in both the insula — which processes and integrates internal body sensations, like those from the gut — and the somatosensory cortex during the emotional reactivity task.
Further, in response to the task, these women had a decrease in the engagement of a widespread network in the brain that includes emotion-, cognition- and sensory-related areas. The women in the other two groups showed a stable or increased activity in this network.
During the resting brain scan, the women consuming probiotics showed greater connectivity between a key brainstem region known as the periaqueductal grey and cognition-associated areas of the prefrontal cortex. The women who ate no product at all, on the other hand, showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation-related regions, while the group consuming the non-probiotic dairy product showed results in between.
The researchers were surprised to find that the brain effects could be seen in many areas, including those involved in sensory processing and not merely those associated with emotion, Tillisch said.
The knowledge that signals are sent from the intestine to the brain and that they can be modulated by a dietary change is likely to lead to an expansion of research aimed at finding new strategies to prevent or treat digestive, mental and neurological disorders, said Dr. Emeran Mayer, a professor of medicine (digestive diseases), physiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s senior author.
“There are studies showing that what we eat can alter the composition and products of the gut flora — in particular, that people with high-vegetable, fiber-based diets have a different composition of their microbiota, or gut environment, than people who eat the more typical Western diet that is high in fat and carbohydrates,” Mayer said. “Now we know that this has an effect not only on the metabolism but also affects brain function.”
The UCLA researchers are seeking to pinpoint particular chemicals produced by gut bacteria that may be triggering the signals to the brain. They also plan to study whether people with gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain and altered bowel movements have improvements in their digestive symptoms which correlate with changes in brain response.
Meanwhile, Mayer notes that other researchers are studying the potential benefits of certain probiotics in yogurts on mood symptoms such as anxiety. He said that other nutritional strategies may also be found to be beneficial.
By demonstrating the brain effects of probiotics, the study also raises the question of whether repeated courses of antibiotics can affect the brain, as some have speculated. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units and in childhood respiratory tract infections, and such suppression of the normal microbiota may have long-term consequences on brain development.
Finally, as the complexity of the gut flora and its effect on the brain is better understood, researchers may find ways to manipulate the intestinal contents to treat chronic pain conditions or other brain related diseases, including, potentially, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and autism.
Answers will be easier to come by in the near future as the declining cost of profiling a person’s microbiota renders such tests more routine, Mayer said.
The study was funded by Danone Research. Mayer has served on the company’s scientific advisory board. Three of the study authors (Denis Guyonnet, Sophie Legrain-Raspaud and Beatrice Trotin) are employed by Danone Research and were involved in the planning and execution of the study (providing the products) but had no role in the analysis or interpretation of the results.
UCLA’s Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress, part of theUCLA Division of Digestive Diseases, is an NIH-funded multidisciplinary, translational research program partially supported by philanthropy. Its mission is to identify the role of the brain in health and medical disease. The Center is comprised of several research programs which focus on the interactions of the brain with the digestive, cardiovascular and urological systems, chronic pain and mind brain body interactions.
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