http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... r-health1/
how will this affect us considering that we get very little fiber?
Gut Microbes
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Gut Microbes
Theresa
MC and UC 2014
in remission since June 1, 2014
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. ~Jim Rohn
MC and UC 2014
in remission since June 1, 2014
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. ~Jim Rohn
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Greengoddess
- Adélie Penguin
- Posts: 170
- Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:30 pm
I'm the wrong one to ask, because personally I have no use for intestinal parasites. As far as I can determine, all the hype about so-called "good" bacteria is mostly useful for enhancing the income of food and pharmaceutical companies, and for encouraging those who profit from such sales to provide more funding for researchers.
Yes, there are plenty of bad (pathogenic) bacteria around, but as far as I can tell, the only thing good about the so-called "good" bacteria is that they are not as obnoxious as the "bad" bacteria, and by allowing them to colonize our intestines and feed off our nutrition, they fill most of the "parking spaces" so that pathogenic bacteria cannot easily find a place to attach and colonize. Does that make them good?
I suppose it depends on your definition of "good". They're better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I suppose. But they're still parasites.
All the professional gut bacteria fans claim that we can't digest food properly without the right gut bacteria, and they provide all sorts of other benefits. Really? Since my surgery over 5 years ago, which left me with an ileostomy, my diet has included only a very minimal amount of fiber. (Fiber is contraindicated with an ileostomy). My weight is normal, I feel great, and my blood pressure this morning was 95/53.
I've had emergency abdominal surgery twice in the last 10 or 11 years (emergency meaning that there was no time for cleanout, so my guts were loaded with stool both times when I was rolled into the OR for a colon resection). That means that I was given beaucoups of antibiotics, both by IV and later orally. When one's guts are handled that much (as during surgery), the digestive system stops, and then it is hopefully restarted several days later, when the first food is ingested.
Did I have any trouble digesting any food without all those bacteria? Of course not. After my digestive system was restarted, it worked just fine. The only difference was that my stool was virtually odor-free for at least several weeks, because of the lack of bacteria to generate gas and odors. After about 5 or 6 months, my stool slowly degraded to it's usual odor, so I knew that my gut had been thoroughly recolonized with parasites (otherwise known as "good" bacteria) again.
This morning I took the last Bactrim tablet of a 10-day course of antibiotics (as a prep for a couple of root-canals). Once again, my stool smells as fresh as a baby's breath (well, sort of ). Am I having any trouble digesting food? Nope. Am I losing weight? Nope. Am I gaining weight? Nope. So after all these years, and all these experiences with eradicating gut bacteria, as far as I can tell, we really don't need the little buggers. And hopefully some day we'll figure out how to eliminate them from our bodies permanently (and keep them out), and everyone will be much better off. But in the meantime, there's no practical way to prevent them from recolonizing our guts, so we have to put up with them.
But clearly, we can get along just fine without them, so I don't see any reason why I should go out of my way to try to encourage them to hang around, by feeding them. YMMV, and I'm sure that a lot of people, and of course all probiotics manufacturers, manufacturers of foods promoted as hi-fiber, and researchers and health "experts" who make their living by promoting products that no one needs, will surely disagree with me.
And in case any member who is not familiar with my surgical experiences wonders — no, the reasons for the surgeries had nothing to do with my eating a minimal amount of fiber. The first one was necessary because of a blockage due to a stenosis in my sigmoid colon, which apparently had been there for many, many years, because I discovered that it was noted on a colonoscopy exam, 5 years earlier. When one of my brothers was born, he had to have emergency surgery within a few days of birth, because there was a blockage between his stomach and his small intestine, preventing him from eating. So my stenosis may have existed at birth, or it may have developed later, because of diverticulitis, but this sort of thing seems to run in the family, on my father's side.
The second surgery involved removing the rest of my colon because of massive colonic bleeding (at times I was bleeding faster than they could replace the blood (so there wasn't any spare time to debate the issue). The bleeding was caused by an inherited trait. Both my father and an uncle had the same problem almost a decade earlier, and they both bled to death in a hospital, because the surgeons didn't realize that they needed to remove all of the colon, not just part of it.
During his hospital stay, my father received 113 units of blood, so it's no wonder that he couldn't survive. Back then doctors didn't realize that if virtually all of the original blood of a patient is lost, the body will not recognize the replaced blood, and the bleeding will continue, because the body rejects the "foreign" blood. Did you know that? I didn't, until I wondered why I hadn't been given more blood. Anyway, I was lucky, because even though I ran short of blood during the surgery, they only gave me 11 units altogether, so I still had enough of my original blood to prevent my body from rejecting it.
But anyway, FWIW, that's the way I view the little parasites that live in our guts.
Tex
Yes, there are plenty of bad (pathogenic) bacteria around, but as far as I can tell, the only thing good about the so-called "good" bacteria is that they are not as obnoxious as the "bad" bacteria, and by allowing them to colonize our intestines and feed off our nutrition, they fill most of the "parking spaces" so that pathogenic bacteria cannot easily find a place to attach and colonize. Does that make them good?
I suppose it depends on your definition of "good". They're better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I suppose. But they're still parasites.All the professional gut bacteria fans claim that we can't digest food properly without the right gut bacteria, and they provide all sorts of other benefits. Really? Since my surgery over 5 years ago, which left me with an ileostomy, my diet has included only a very minimal amount of fiber. (Fiber is contraindicated with an ileostomy). My weight is normal, I feel great, and my blood pressure this morning was 95/53.
I've had emergency abdominal surgery twice in the last 10 or 11 years (emergency meaning that there was no time for cleanout, so my guts were loaded with stool both times when I was rolled into the OR for a colon resection). That means that I was given beaucoups of antibiotics, both by IV and later orally. When one's guts are handled that much (as during surgery), the digestive system stops, and then it is hopefully restarted several days later, when the first food is ingested.
Did I have any trouble digesting any food without all those bacteria? Of course not. After my digestive system was restarted, it worked just fine. The only difference was that my stool was virtually odor-free for at least several weeks, because of the lack of bacteria to generate gas and odors. After about 5 or 6 months, my stool slowly degraded to it's usual odor, so I knew that my gut had been thoroughly recolonized with parasites (otherwise known as "good" bacteria) again.
This morning I took the last Bactrim tablet of a 10-day course of antibiotics (as a prep for a couple of root-canals). Once again, my stool smells as fresh as a baby's breath (well, sort of
). Am I having any trouble digesting food? Nope. Am I losing weight? Nope. Am I gaining weight? Nope. So after all these years, and all these experiences with eradicating gut bacteria, as far as I can tell, we really don't need the little buggers. And hopefully some day we'll figure out how to eliminate them from our bodies permanently (and keep them out), and everyone will be much better off. But in the meantime, there's no practical way to prevent them from recolonizing our guts, so we have to put up with them.But clearly, we can get along just fine without them, so I don't see any reason why I should go out of my way to try to encourage them to hang around, by feeding them. YMMV, and I'm sure that a lot of people, and of course all probiotics manufacturers, manufacturers of foods promoted as hi-fiber, and researchers and health "experts" who make their living by promoting products that no one needs, will surely disagree with me.
And in case any member who is not familiar with my surgical experiences wonders — no, the reasons for the surgeries had nothing to do with my eating a minimal amount of fiber. The first one was necessary because of a blockage due to a stenosis in my sigmoid colon, which apparently had been there for many, many years, because I discovered that it was noted on a colonoscopy exam, 5 years earlier. When one of my brothers was born, he had to have emergency surgery within a few days of birth, because there was a blockage between his stomach and his small intestine, preventing him from eating. So my stenosis may have existed at birth, or it may have developed later, because of diverticulitis, but this sort of thing seems to run in the family, on my father's side.
The second surgery involved removing the rest of my colon because of massive colonic bleeding (at times I was bleeding faster than they could replace the blood (so there wasn't any spare time to debate the issue). The bleeding was caused by an inherited trait. Both my father and an uncle had the same problem almost a decade earlier, and they both bled to death in a hospital, because the surgeons didn't realize that they needed to remove all of the colon, not just part of it.
During his hospital stay, my father received 113 units of blood, so it's no wonder that he couldn't survive. Back then doctors didn't realize that if virtually all of the original blood of a patient is lost, the body will not recognize the replaced blood, and the bleeding will continue, because the body rejects the "foreign" blood. Did you know that? I didn't, until I wondered why I hadn't been given more blood. Anyway, I was lucky, because even though I ran short of blood during the surgery, they only gave me 11 units altogether, so I still had enough of my original blood to prevent my body from rejecting it.
But anyway, FWIW, that's the way I view the little parasites that live in our guts.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I remember reading something interesting recently. In a book it mentioned that psyllium soluble fiber has anti fungal properties to it. There wasn't references to that mention I recall though. Doing a google search see some hits on that so possibly there is something to it. I just remember on an IBD Crohns based form, many with Crohns reported a little plain psyllium during the day helped improve their condition nicely.
If I recall correctly, psyllium forms sort of a gel in the intestines, so it absorbs water to help reduce liquid D.
Tex
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Linda,
Of course I could be all wet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the more widely-promoted gut bacteria species/tribes probably have professional lobbyists working for them both in Washington and at many locations within the health care community to make sure that they constantly stay on the favorable side of the news.
E. colii, listeria, salmonella, etc., are too stingy to hire lobyists, so whenever anything goes wrong in someones gut, they get hung out to dry, because no one looks out for their interests.
You're most welcome,
Tex
Of course I could be all wet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the more widely-promoted gut bacteria species/tribes probably have professional lobbyists working for them both in Washington and at many locations within the health care community to make sure that they constantly stay on the favorable side of the news.
E. colii, listeria, salmonella, etc., are too stingy to hire lobyists, so whenever anything goes wrong in someones gut, they get hung out to dry, because no one looks out for their interests.
You're most welcome,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.