Gut Flora, Zonulin, Lectins......Tying it All Together

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:12 pm

Hi All (and especially Mike),

Here is a quote from the email I received from Dr. Scot Lewey (a GI doc with gluten/casein sensitivity) today:

"What I find both very exciting and frustrating at the same time is
the huge amount of information out there in the IBD, celiac and food
intolerance, lectin and basic science gut research that is
disconnected like the three blind men describing an elephant while
all touching a different part of the animal. On top of this is the
cultural bias of our diet beliefs including government advocated food
pyramid, industry support of genetically modified foods and the
resistance of the scientific community to advocate food and probiotic
recommendations in lieu of more drug research."

Mike, I think I have heard you voice the same concerns - with almost exactly the same words. LOL!

Stay tuned. I have asked Dr. Lewey if I may share his complete personal email to me with everyone here. BTW, he works very closely with Drs. Fine and Cordain and incorporates their (and Dr. Fasson's thinking as well) into his own thinking. What a find!

Polly

mle_ii · Post by **mle_ii** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:34 pm

Exactly. I guess one of the things I love to do is to solve puzzles or see patterns in things. Here I see a definit puzzle and I see patterns for sure. I've pretty much made them all known here.

If only we had more Drs and researchers that could look at the entire puzzle instead of just their little pieces. If we had this we'd solve the puzzle. In fact this is how you solve a puzzle, you look for patterns in the pieces and you see how they tie in with the other pieces. Without them all you cannot ever solve it.

That and how disfunctional our health care system really is. Each type of Dr only sees how their part fits in, but it doesn't solve the puzzle either. In fact I see it more like taking the whole puzzle grinding it up and gluing it together and saying, see it's fixed look it's all put together now in fact better than it could have ever been before. LOL It's not a health care system it's an urgent care system. We wait until there's a problem that says hey, take care of me now or die. Instead of the warning problem that says, um, please take care of me, I know it's not bad right now, but it could be down the road. Though the medical system isn't the only one in such a bad shape, I can see the same problem elsewhere as well.

Mike

harvest_table · Post by **harvest_table** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:58 am

kate_ce1995 · Post by **kate_ce1995** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:19 am

I haven't had the time or energy to read all the stuff you guys have been coming up with on all this, but I agree that there is a dietary component to all this gut health and how we feel over all. I've learned that much through finding my gluten intolerance. I'm currently frustrated by muscle cramps...charley horses in my feet (particularly the right one) and aches in my back, chest and calf muscles. I seem to have tied it either to cough medicine or when I forget to take my calcium supplement (which I only take 1 500 mg tablet a day, so I wouldn't think that would be enough to make a difference, especially since I drink a yogurt and drink a large glass of calcium fortified oj every day. And I haven't seen a connection to the dairy...I do have good days. The jury is still out on soy. Salt may also be contributing.
And here I have gotten off topic.
Katy

artteacher · Post by **artteacher** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:49 am

Joanna,

You rock.

Love, Marsha

artteacher · Post by **artteacher** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:51 am

Hi Katy,

Are you getting enough potassium? The more protein you eat, the greater your need for potassium . . . if you're not getting enough, it will cause cramps, and burning muscles.

Love, Marsha

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:23 am

So what is the tie between Gut Flora, Zonulin (?) and lectins

What are the lectins?

Post by **tex** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:41 am

Hi Andrew,

Lectins are naturally-produced pesticides, (or toxins), that some plants, (especially legumes), produce, in order to deter predators, minimize competition from certain plants of other species, and various other functions for which pesticides are useful.

I've gotta get to work, so I'll let someone else answer your first question.

Tex

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:23 am

are lectins in potato?

Post by **tex** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:38 pm

Well, yes, but as far as I know, they're not toxic to humans. I assume that all plants have them, it's just that some are much more of a health risk, than others, particularly the legumes.

The major toxin in potatoes is solanine, which is found mostly in the skin, if the skin is exposed to the sun, while the it is growing. IOW, don't eat potato skins that have any green pigmentation, and you'll be ok.

Tex

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:07 pm

HA--- I never eat potato skins blech

mle_ii · Post by **mle_ii** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:39 pm

thedell19 wrote:So what is the tie between Gut Flora, Zonulin (?) and lectins

What are the lectins?

The tie between Gut Flora and Zonulin is that there are some bacteria, mainly the good, that help modulate it. And that there are bad bacteria that open the gates so to speak.

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:09 pm

posted this in the wrong thread...doh'

Hey Mike-

I just found a website on Custom Probiotics...

www.customprobiotics.com

Basically they have a blend of 6 cultures- L Acidophilus, L. Salivarius, L Plantarum, L Rhamnosus, B Lactis and B Bifidum...

260 billion CFUs per gram and a 100 gram bottle is $165- and if you take one adult size scoop a day .8 grams it will last for 4 months so that is about $40 a month (cheaper than VSL)... Likewise if you were to take 2 (0.8 gram scoops) it would last 2 months at 80 per month and you would get 520 billion vs 350 billion that VSl has... This looks rather interesting and at least the website has a lot of good information on probiotics etc.

mle_ii · Post by **mle_ii** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:13 pm

Cool, thanks I'll be sure to read the website and keep this in mind down the road.

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:01 pm

I have a few questions into Custom Probiotics- like how you mix and match your specially formulated probiotics...

So I will post in this thread when I get some answers