Gluten digesting bacteria and enzymes: is that what we lack?

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Zizzle
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Gluten digesting bacteria and enzymes: is that what we lack?

Post by Zizzle »

Perhaps we lack a certain gluten-degrading oral bacteria?

http://www.celiac.com/articles/23598/1/ ... Page1.html

Or lower GI tract bugs that feed off gluten peptides?
http://www.celiac.com/articles/23579/1/ ... Page1.html


The author of "Autoimmune Disease: The Cause and the Cure" believes ALL autoimmune disease originates from one singular disease pathway, which is the inability of the pancreas to produce 2 key digestive enzymes that break down proteins. Those undigested proteins are viewed as foreign by the immune system, and multiple protein sensitivities result...which eventually lead to AI diseases. She has lots of evidence to back up her claims.

Has anyone read her book or theories?

https://www.facebook.com/Autoimmunethecauseandthecure
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Post by tex »

I would hate to have to rely on bacteria to digest my food for me. I can do just fine without them, thank you. If some issue put me in a position where I needed an antibiotic to save my life, or a long-term treatment for Lyme disease, for example, my problems would be escalated by the fact that I couldn't digest my own food, and the bacteria couldn't survive in my gut.

The reason why we have a sophisticated digestive system in the first place, is to digest our food, and our digestive system is self-sufficient. No one ever said that we should be able to digest any food on the planet. That's ridiculous, when you stop and think about it. No organism can do that. Why on earth do some people believe that we should be able to eat anything we want? If we can't digest a certain food, it's kind of naive to eat it and then try to force our digestive system to digest it. Isn't it?

There are bacteria that can decompose soil, rocks, etc., and virtually anything else, including deadly toxins, but you won't see me trying to see if those bacteria will allow me to digest those "foods". :lol: And why should we try to enslave some colony of bacteria to do the work for us, anyway. Slavery was abolished 150 years ago. The way that animal rights are coming along, the first thing you know, those bacteria will be protesting for equal rights. :lol:

IMO, we don't lack anything (except maybe self-control). The bottom line is obvious: We shouldn't eat foods that our digestive system was not designed to digest, and the human digestive system most definitely was not designed to digest gluten. Why continue to beat a dead horse? beat_deadhorse:

Tex
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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.
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Post by nerdhume »

I believe the added probiotics I take have helped and also the water kefir I make each day because I cannot tolerate yogurt (dairy).
I am confused by your post Tex, I know I am a newbie, but I thought it was common knowledge that the bacteria in our gut actually digest our foods, and some of them manufacture vitamins in the process.
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Post by carolm »

Hi nerdhume--
I'll let Tex answer the bigger questions but I wanted to say that while you are taking Uceris it will be tougher to figure out what is working and what isn't. There were foods I could eat while taking Budesonide that I couldn't eat after I stopped taking it. I am also skeptical of probiotics. At one point I decided 'what the heck, I'll try' and with one dose it induced more GI problems than I already had. There are only a handful of us who have found them helpful and that's a tiny percentage of the people who are here. Frankly all I ever got from fermented foods was gas. If it was simply a matter of a missing bacteria then the people who had fecal transplants should have faired better than the rest of us-- but they didn't achieve any long term benefit.

I just want you to be aware that as you decrease your Uceris things may change and you will have to make further adjustments. If you started your probiotics and kefir water at the same time as the Uceris, I'd put my money on the Uceris to account for improvement. Just be aware that you can tolerate more while taking an immunosupressant.

Edited: There is such a strong genetic component at play too where autoimmune diseases are concerned-- I just don't think it will ever boil down to just one thing that we are missing.

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Post by Zizzle »

I too thought it was commonly accepted knowledge that bacteria most definitely help break down our food, they produce some enzymes and vitamins in the process, and are a normal part of the digestive process. Yes, you can digest food after theoretically wiping your system clean of bacteria, but you are probably not processing the food completely and will eventually end up with problems. Of course we know it's impossible to wipe out bacteria long-term, and it's also impossible to wipe out ALL bacteria with one or even several antibiotics (since we all carry resistant strains, some may hide in biofilms, and some like mycobacteria are not affected by most antibiotics) so we really don't know what bacteria-free digestion looks like.

In today's news, they have piggybacked a gluten digesting enzyme onto a probiotic with success...

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/ ... ase-133779
Elafin is less abundant in patients with celiac disease than in healthy people. They identified that Elafin is capable of preventing the destruction of the gut barrier during inflammation, and that Elafin is able to interact with enzymes responsible for the abnormal breakdown of gluten: transglutaminase-2.

Consequently, Elafin reduces gluten toxicity.

These observations led the scientists to propose a way to deliver the missing Elafin in celiac patients with help of a harmless bacterium that is often present in food: a lactic bacterium strain (Lactococcus lactis), that scientists transformed in order to express Elafin.

The use of this strain, developed by the same teams from INRA and INSERM, enables a targeted and local production of Elafin, and represents a recent and innovative strategy.
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Post by nerdhume »

my PCP started me on probiotics in November 2013, from the pharmacy, kept in the refrigerator. I believe they helped some with the WD.
The first trip to GI, February 6th I was put on VSL #3 and have been taking 2 each day since then.
I have also made my own water kefir and drink at least 2 glasses of it every day.
At first probiotics can cause a lot of gas and bloating, it's important to start off slow. If the capsules are not kept refrigerated they may or may not have live cultures. Yogurt, kefir etc is the preferred method because you are swallowing food that will keep the bacteria alive at the same time as the bacteria.
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Post by tex »

Actually, that common knowledge is not knowledge at all. It's similar to a lot of misconceptions where incorrect assumptions were made many, many years ago, so eventually most people eventually come to believe that they are legitimate facts. Remember the "common knowledge" among doctors that eating fat causes us to become fat? That salt causes hypertension? That red meat causes colon cancer? That fiber prevents colon cancer? etc., etc.

Yes, most of us can tolerate all sort of bacteria, yeasts, and various parasites in our gut. Because we can't do much about them, in the long run, it is assumed that they are there for a reason. Actually, that reason is that they are there for their own benefit, not ours.

Yes, some bacteria provide some peripheral benefits to our digestive system. Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then. But anyway, those supposed benefits are one of the reasons why so many people believe that gut bacteria are essential for good digestion. But for every species that provides benefits, there are thousands that provide no benefits at all, and many hundreds that are pathogenic. In the overall picture, we're being royally ripped off, because most of them are freeloaders or worse.

The bottom line is that we certainly don't need them, but as you know from experience, we can usually tolerate most of them, whether by choice, or otherwise. How do I know that we don't need them? Our digestive system works quite well without them. Twice, within the last 10 years, I have had emergency abdominal surgery. My digestive system was completely stopped, and then restarted after a few days. I was pumped full of antibiotics (because I couldn't be cleaned out prior to the surgery) administered by IV, and after my digestive system was restarted, oral antibiotics were added. If I had any gut bacteria remaining after that, their numbers were negligible, because when I was discharged from the hospital (the first time with a colostomy, and the second time with an ileostomy), it was obvious that no bacteria remained. The odor of the contents of my intestines was as sweet as a baby's breath. It basically smelled the same as when it originally went into my mouth. And it remained that way for several months after my discharge (because I never took any probiotics of any type).

When bacteria are present, their presence is obvious by the odor. Trust me, when you change an ileostomy pouch, you get an unprecedented opportunity to see (and smell) what's coming out of your gut. There's no better way to analyze your digestive system, because you can even see an extension of the mucosa of your intestine, and everything that passes through. Anyway, after a few months, it was clear that my gut was becoming repopulated with bacteria, because it progressively developed an increasingly characteristic odor, and after about a year, it seemed to stabilize. My digestion is no better now, than it was before the bugs came back — it's just a lot more odoriferous.

The point is, while the bacteria were absent, my digestion was fine, and I gained weight normally (I was underweight at the time of the surgeries). I felt great, and there is no question in my mind that we do not need a single bacterium in our gut. For anyone who likes the little buggers, that's fine, but paint me unconvinced that they are actually beneficial for us. Like most parasites, they are there for their own benefit, and no one else's.

Zizzle, my digestion was as complete as it ever was, and I don't understand why you feel that someone in that situation "will eventually end up with problems". My problems all developed back when my gut was still loaded with bacteria. I had no problems while I was rid of them. You sound like a lobbyist for the gut bacteria coalition. :lol:

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Post by tex »

nerdhume wrote:At first probiotics can cause a lot of gas and bloating
That's your digestive system trying to tell you that it doesn't like what you are sending it's way. :lol: Yes, eventually our system may learn to tolerate many things that are offensive to it, but forcing tolerance is a questionable tactic. I found that I can tolerate casein, and I can eat any dairy products without obvious clinical symptoms. But as soon as I discovered that I was producing antibodies to casein (thanks to an EnteroLab test), I permanently cut it out of my diet, and guess what? An osteoarthritis problem that was showing up in the distal joint of a couple of fingers on my right hand, disappeared.

Please don't misunderstand me — I'm not condemning the use of probiotic products, because they are usually harmless (if we can tolerate them), and many people feel that they are beneficial in their situation (and maybe they are — the jury is still out). I probably do a few quirky things that you wouldn't consider doing, also. :lol: All I'm saying is that we don't need gut bacteria, and we can get along just fine without them, despite arbitrary claims to the contrary.

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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.
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Post by gluten »

Hi, Very interesting post. The research I found about bacteria in biofilms is that they produce enzymes. Some of these enzymes are used in various body functions. But there are some that create their own enzymes for their own benefit and cause damage to their host. The food manufacturers are in a constant battle against bacterial biofilms in their equipment. Since the G.I tract is the food processer for the health of the host. We have the same problem, but it is the type of bacteria we have as guests that control our health. The only reason why wheat was used as a food source was to feed an expanding population. Unfortunately, we do not have three stomachs like a cow to digest the proteins from the gluten. I am correct about the three stomachs Tex? Jon
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Post by Zizzle »

nerdhume wrote:
At first probiotics can cause a lot of gas and bloating


That's your digestive system trying to tell you that it doesn't like what you are sending it's way.
Actually, I've read that the body is incapable of producing gases on it's own. All gases in the GI tract are created by bacteria. Therefore, when a probiotic causes gas and bloating, it is the resident bacteria objecting, or the new bacteria getting used to new surroundings. If the resident bacteria are a harmful mix, I have no problems with pissing them off in the short run, so long as they eventually calm down.
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Post by Zizzle »

:idea:
Zizzle, my digestion was as complete as it ever was, and I don't understand why you feel that someone in that situation "will eventually end up with problems". My problems all developed back when my gut was still loaded with bacteria. I had no problems while I was rid of them.
There is one big caveat in your bacteria-less experience....YOU HAD NO COLON!! As I understand it (learned from you, I think), we are not supposed to have any bacteria residing in our small intestine. Bacteria are supposed to be in the colon. Once they migrate up, you have SIBO, which is not a normal state of affairs.

So...if you had a colon, you might have experienced the eventual downsides of not having bacteria in the colon to help complete the digestive process?
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Post by tex »

Jon,

Actually, technically speaking, cows have a single stomach, but that stomach is very large, and it has 4 separate, specialized compartments. But yes, that allows them to digest a broad range of foods, including cellulose. I'm not sure that they can digest gluten, though — they might be able to, I just don't know. That's an interesting question.

And speaking of biofilms — if gut bacteria were so beneficial, they wouldn't need impervious barriers for protection. They would expect their host to appreciate them, so they wouldn't have to build a fortress for protection. The fact that they do, is prima facie evidence that they realize that they are pests, rather than partners. :lol:

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Post by tex »

First, for anyone reading this thread who doesn't know me very well, please be aware that this is strictly my own opinion, and as far as I'm aware, my claim that gut bacteria are totally unnecessary is not supported by any medical professional, or any medical organization in the world. I'm hoping that in another 50 pr 60 years of research, it will dawn on them that I am correct. I'm not holding my breath though, because as an industry, they're making far too much money selling probiotics and treating digestive issues caused by gut bacteria, to give any thought to biting the hand that feeds them. :lol:
Zizzle wrote:Actually, I've read that the body is incapable of producing gases on it's own. All gases in the GI tract are created by bacteria. Therefore, when a probiotic causes gas and bloating, it is the resident bacteria objecting, or the new bacteria getting used to new surroundings. If the resident bacteria are a harmful mix, I have no problems with pissing them off in the short run, so long as they eventually calm down.
That's true (that the body is incapable of producing gases on it's own — that's true for digestive gases, anyway). Gases are produced as food rots (gut bacteria fans prefer to refer to this process as fermentation, to make it sound more palatable :lol:). The process is sometimes referred to as "digestion", but IMO, it's a poor way to digest anything. The gas and bloating is not due to any bacteria objecting to anything — the gas is a byproduct of the decomposition of food. The bacteria aren't pissed off — they're as happy as pigs in a mud wallow, because they're just doing what they do best.
Zizzle wrote:There is one big caveat in your bacteria-less experience....YOU HAD NO COLON!! As I understand it (learned from you, I think), we are not supposed to have any bacteria residing in our small intestine. Bacteria are supposed to be in the colon. Once they migrate up, you have SIBO, which is not a normal state of affairs.

So...if you had a colon, you might have experienced the eventual downsides of not having bacteria in the colon to help complete the digestive process?
Well, actually, I did have a colon after the first surgery. My colon was disconnected at my sigmoid colon, so most of it was still functional.

And actually, we do have bacteria in our small intestine — just not the same species that populate the colon.

IMO, we're not supposed to have any bacteria anywhere in our gut. Here's the ridiculous part of the gut-bacteria-are-good-for-digestion myth:

The only things that can be absorbed in the colon are water and electrolytes (that weren't absorbed in the small intestine). So just what good do you suppose it does to rot/ferment/decompose undigested food in the colon? It certainly can't provide the host with any nutrients, because once those nutrients leave the small intestine, they are lost forever (to the host). They absolutely cannot be absorbed in the colon, no matter how well the contents of the lumen might be "digested" by bacteria. So where do the nutrients go? Why they go to supporting those freeloading bacteria of course, and they go to soil, streams, lakes, and oceans, by way of our "septic systems".

So tell me, why on earth do I need bacteria anywhere, let alone in my colon (which now peacefully resides in some landfill :lol:). You say that if I had a colon, I could see the errors of my ways, because I would be having digestive problems without those bacteria. I don't follow your logic, because the fact that I don't have a colon guarantees that those freeloading bugs are no longer in my body, so they definitely would be missed, if they performed some essential function. If something is missing (other than those useless bacteria and my colon), I'm failing to see it (OK, technically, my cecum, appendix, and a little over half a foot of my terminal ileum are also missing, but that's irrelevant to the issue here). My colon has been gone for over 4 years now. Why hasn't my digestion gone to hell, and my health come crashing down? All my health problems developed while I still had a colon. Now that it's gone, it's been relatively smooth sailing. :grin:

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Post by Zizzle »

First, for anyone reading this thread who doesn't know me very well, please be aware that this is strictly my own opinion, and as far as I'm aware, my claim that gut bacteria are totally unnecessary is not supported by any medical professional, or any medical organization in the world.
So tell me, why on earth do I need bacteria anywhere, let alone in my colon (which now peacefully resides in some landfill).
:ROFL: YOU'VE GOT ME IN STITCHES! :lol: :lol:


I'm trying to live in the here and now...in the food chain that includes us humans and the bacteria that symbiotically live with, in, and on us. Since we can't eradicate them, the goal must be to optimize the "beneficial" ones we have and hope they crowd out the pathegenic ones.[/quote]
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Post by nerdhume »

isn't having the colon removed the absolute cure for MC?
Theresa

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We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. ~Jim Rohn
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