Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Critical Role of Microflora In Vaccine Injury (Keith Bell's Green Med Info Post)

Vaccine Injury: The Biological Plausibility of Microbial Predisposition  -  Part 2
There are gaping holes in vaccine science, especially the critical role of microflora in mediating vaccine effects, including adverse ones.
Vaccine Injury: The Biological Plausibility of Microbial Predisposition  -  Part 2
The purpose of these articles is to call attention to gaping holes in vaccine science, issues never before studied:
1) How childhood vaccines may affect flora balance and colonization, and
2) How existing flora (microbial predisposition) may affect vaccine response leading to injury.

The Critical Role of Microflora In Vaccine Injury


In Part 1, we explored microbes as the underlying beauty of diversity in explaining how children react differently to vaccines. It's known gut dysbiosis contributes to inflammation and poor vaccine response. This means imbalanced flora leads to vaccine failure. Children born with imbalanced flora may be prone to powerful vaccine reaction of the immune system leading to injury. Important microbes such as protective Bifidobacteria may be reduced or absent.

Some groups with microbial predisposition based on ancestral dietary habits may be predisposed to vaccine reaction and higher risk of injury. How childhood vaccines affect flora balance, short and long-term, remains unknown. And there are no studies about how the infant microbiome may predispose a child to vaccine injury.
By the CDC's own admission, African American boys may be one such group prone to vaccine injury: an increased risk of autism. One important microbial factor possibly explaining both poor vaccine response and vaccine injury is reduced or absent Bifidobacteria. Instead of doctors suggesting parents give their children Motrin or dangerous, glutathione-lowering Tylenol before and after vaccination, perhaps anti-inflammatory probiotics are in order to enhance vaccine response and protect from injury. This is the science of probiotics as vaccine adjuvantsexcept scientists aren't considering how probiotics may guard from injury. They're only interested in vaccine response to improve efficacy.

Before Dr. Brian Hooker's paper detailing significantly increased risk of autism by MMR vaccination in African American boys was retracted by its publisher, even stripped of its title, the Mayo Clinic was busy pondering why the African American immune system produces twice as many antibodies to the current rubella vaccine as Caucasians and Hispanics. They have no explanation other than genetics in disregard of microbial regulation of genes and immune response.

Here's Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Vaccine, wondering aloud (video):
"The vaccine in essence is working differently. The question is, why? It's the same vaccine in human beings administered the same way and yet it stimulates a very different set of gene expression and protein secretion, that protein being antibody that protects us when we see the virus. We may be able to reduce the amount of side effects."
What Dr. Poland is not factoring is gene-microbe interaction and how people have different flora balance. Why is the Mayo Clinic focused on genes when microbiota are known to switch genes on and off, regulating gene expression? Reducing risk of side effects may be better approached through microbial DNA testing to determine an individual's flora balance prior to vaccination.
Dr. Hooker attempts to explain the discrepancy by way of vitamin D levels, known lower in African Americans while vitamin D deficiency is pandemic not based on skin color, but flora balance. Vitamin D isn't just about sunshine as commonly touted by experts. Some studies paradoxically find vitamin D levels lowest in the brightest months. The rickets epidemic in the UK is considered a matter of low sun exposure and poor diet while beaches are polluted with sewage ten times over legal limits. Children in Bangladesh are not suffering rickets due to wearing too much sunblock. The epidemic is more likely tied to high rates of gestational diabetes leading to gut dysbiosis in newborns beginning in the womb. It's no accident all the major gut diseases include vitamin D deficiency where these diseases are matters of microbial overgrowth. Microbes make and break vitamin D. They produce precursors of the hormone, vitamin D, and the enzymes responsible for its degradation. Moreover, small intestinal malabsorption due to gut dysbiosis leads to vitamin and mineral deficiency associated with hormonal imbalance. We're only beginning to learn how gut microbiota affect hormone levels. Bifidobacteria control inflammation by way of increasinghormone-secreting endocrine cells and improving gut barrier function.
Dr. Hooker also cites a 2010 paper where the Hepatitis B vaccine administered at birth results in higher rates of autism in nonwhite boys. "Non-Hispanic white boys were 64% less likely to have autism diagnosis relative to nonwhite boys." Armed with this information, why would any doctor allow an African American male newborn HepB vaccination within 12 hours of birth per cruel CDC schedule?

And what of newborns of all races and both genders potentially predisposed to vaccine injury based on microbial predisposition? Not only are genes passed from mother to child, but so are her microbes which interact with genes. With gut imbalances and diseases such as obesity, diabetes,Celiac and Crohn's on the rise affecting future generations, we're also seeing higher rates of vaccine injury.

Microbial-gene interaction is at the core of the problem, overlooked and underappreciated. Scientists are too quick to blame genetics when addressing vaccine injury without considering how microbes turn genes on and off like light switches. It's complicated by the fact that genes also regulate flora balance, a two-way street. Microbes regulate host genes while genes regulate microbial activity. We're in this together.

Blood antigen secretor status is normally considered controlled by genes. Bifidobacteria are found significantly reduced in non-secretors where African Americans were found to have the highest percentage of non-secretors.

Gene-microbe interaction is an intracellular phenomenon not yet part of our sterile textbook landscape. The Kreb's cycle, for example, is still taught as sterile process disconnected from the web of life. There are no diagrams of the Kreb's cycle integrating intracellular microbes doing the backstroke in cytosol of cells, releasing toxins, aldehydes and free fatty acids affecting energy metabolism.

The playing field of this interaction is the gut where 70% of the body's immune system resides. So, why would African Americans produce twice the antibodies by vaccination compared to other races per Mayo Clinic?

To answer this question, let's take a close view of where these antibodies are produced in the gut,Peyer's patches and cryptopatches. This is a groundbreaking 1990 electron microscope imageof a sheep's ileum, last section of small intestine where the immune system is intimately associated with lymphatic and nervous systems, nerve bundles and fibers known as vagal afferents of thegut-brain, interface of microbes and their hosts:
The adaptive and innate immune systems work together to guide homeostasis of intestinal microbiota. But it's a two-way street as "a balanced indigenous microbiota is required to drive the normal development of both mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue, the epithelial barrier with its secretory IgA (and IgM) system." Our immune system controls flora balance by intestinal IgA and SIgA while flora controls the immune system.
Antibodies in breast milk were found to give lifelong benefit in regulating gut microbiota and gene expression while antibody excretion is enhanced by microbes such as bifidobacteria: a circle of life where antibodies control flora and flora stimulate antibodies. Breastfeeding improves vaccine response; certainly a matter of flora balance due to probiotics and prebiotics in breast milk where breastfed infant gut flora is up to 90% bifidobacteria. Might breastfeeding also decrease risk of vaccine injury?
T-cells called intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) live in and are born from intestinalcryptopatches and Peyer's patches where they help B-cells become IgA producers dependent on colonization of bacteria, a reciprocal interaction. Bifidobacteria in particular play a strong role in this formation of antibodies. Bifidobacteria may also play a role in B-cell maturation where antibodies are not required for immunity against some viruses. 

There are several studies detailing bifidobacteria inducing antibody production, strain dependent.Bifidobacterium breve was found to increase antibodies produced in Peyer's patches as adjuvant of an oral influenza vaccine.  Another bifidobacteria strain was found to activate immune response in lymphatic tissue of both small and large intestine. Bifidobacterium infantis was found protective in salmonella infection by inducing production of regulatory T-cells (Tregs). Bifidobacterium breve was tested in fermented milk, found to enhance B-cell and antibody production in Peyer's patches.

Elevated antibodies are known in autism indicating microbial imbalance and infection. For example, elevated anti-gliadin (IgG) antibodies may correlate with yeast overgrowth as gliadin is part of the fungal cell wall. Elevated measles antibodies known in autism is subject of great dispute as it may indicate abnormal immune reaction to vaccination. 
The mighty Human Microbiome Project has yet to venture deeply into the small intestine, an equivalent of inner outer space. We're only beginning to understand how microbes influence health while vaccine scientists parrot age-old fallacy without evidence that children are born with sterile intestines, condoning vaccination within 12 hours of birth. Scientists are also revealing theunappreciated role of gut microbiota in immune response to vaccination. But in general, vaccine scientists have been living in a sterile world in utter disregard of microbial impact on immune response leading to injury. A particularly ominous example is high incidence of protozoans known in autism and how they may affect immune response in vaccination. Vertical, placental transmission of protozoans is known.

CDC protocol should be reduced and begun much later in life to allow the immune system, reliant on flora, time to develop, protecting children from injury. Microbial DNA (PCR) testing ofmeconium and routine stool testing pre-vaccination for biomarkers such as bifidobacteria may help avoid vaccine injury. An alternative is not to risk injury by vaccination, instead concentrating on building long-term natural immunity via optimal flora balance including nutrition.

How an abnormal immune reaction caused by vaccination leads to intestinal injury resulting in gut-brain malfunction such as autism will be explored in Part 3.

39 comments:

Dr. Art Ayers said...

Hi Dr. B G,
I agree that microflora are a major consideration in essentially all medical procedures, especially those, such as vaccination, in which the immune system is the target.

..but, I need to once again nit pick a little. I think that the major impact on vitamin D deficiency is chronic inflammation, which eliminates the solar production of vitamin D in the skin. Dietary vitamin D is irrelevant and so are sun block, etc. If your diet and gut flora produce chronic inflammation, then you are vitamin D deficient. I would consider vitamin D deficiency to be an indicator of chronic inflammation and a risk factor for autoimmune disease.

You previously asked about my view of gliadin/gluten. First, I worked extensively with fungal walls, and there is no gliadin. Some of the wall proteins have polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts, so they would be expected to share some sequence homology with polyQ gliadin, since all polyQ proteins have functional homologies. Red herring.

I think that it would be productive the adaptive advantage of having seeds with polyQ proteins. Everything else in seeds is antibiotic (phytoalexins) or pesticide (anti-trypsin), so I think that polyQ proteins are plant defenses. PolyQ tracts will evolve spontaneously through mutation and selection in proteins where there is no disadvantage. The toxicity of the polyQ tracts, especially after modification by transglutaminases, will provide an advantage in seeds. The seeds will have to detox the polyQ after germination and that is why milling and processing that disrupt detox during bread production may contribute to celiac incidence.

PolyQ proteins are natural immunogens, but they are not presented by the same mechanisms as other immunogens/allergens/autoantigens. Also, transglutaminase conjugation further enhances immunogenicity, because transglutaminase has a basic triplet for presentation.

I always enjoy your articles.

Dr. B G said...

Thanks ARt! Actually Mr Bell wrote the article!

I learn so much from your thoughts. I was not aware of polyQ tracts and how the are modified in the gut by tTG (like gliadin). Yes they sound important. Are there studies in humans?

Do you think only HLA DQ2/8 are affected by polyQ or many genotypes?

Celiacs with HLA DQ2/8 present the sticky gliadin-tTG complex to APCs which start the immuno cascade.
http://www.simtomax.eu/health-care-professionals/about-coeliac-disease

Bifido play a role not only for protecting immunity and maintaining tight junctions but also they help to digest gliadin to non-toxic peptides.

Lacto and Bifidobacteria longum can decrease gliadin toxicity in vitro and vivo in celiacs

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/40851485_Bifidobacteria_inhibit_the_inflammatory_response_induced_by_gliadins_in_intestinal_epithelial_cells_via_modifications_of_toxic_peptide_generation_during_digestion

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0030744#pone-0030744-g004

http://www.biopolis-biotech.com/en/products/probiotics-Probiotic-Strain-ES1

Anonymous said...

Bloody brilliant work Keith,

It's great that you shared it here.
I hope one day there will be thoughtful ways to determine whether someone has the immunity to withstand exposure to pathogens and infections. What you describe is so brutal an approach. Vaccination during weakened immune system is an assault. Yet, if it is determined that the person (pet) has strong immunity, then why would they need these vaccines?
I look forward to reading more comments.

Did you read Dissolving Illusions?

Regina

Unknown said...

Regina, a great description of the conundrum. Though it appears we can't blame vaccine injury simply on vaccines alone because microbes regulate immune response, there's still the issue of potential vaccine injury due to poor immune response . . . and then questioning the need for vaccination given a strong immune system. I haven't read that book yet, thanks for the inspiration, though I'm a fan of the premise of improved sanitation explaining progress in public health, not vaccination. The Sanitation vs. Vaccination debate actually goes back to the 1700s, I believe, yet people still don't see vaccination as an environmental issue. The lion's share of funding goes to vaccination in disregard of improving sanitation.

Dr. Ayers, I think you nail it when describing vitamin D deficiency a matter of intestinal inflammation due to dysbiosis. My understanding is vitamin D is made active in kidneys, but needs to be absorbed by intestines. This RS study ascribes success to kidney health when it may actually be small intestinal health where microbes leap off vitamin D receptors in the small intestine attaching themselves to RS molecules, hitching a ride to the large intestine where they belong and/or RS shifting flora by feeding commensals, displacing overgrowth. This allows small intestinal absorption of vitamin D and other key nutrients.

Vitamin D deficiency becomes a vicious circle since it's required for intracellular calcium absorption required for immune activation to balance flora, i.e., stimulating macrophage activity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23677864

What's the mechanism behind use of pumpkin seeds in parasite cleansing? Is it about high zinc and magnesium content lowering inflammation for improved vitamin D absorption in the gut? That seems more powerful than direct antimicrobial action.

This 2003 paper talks about gliadin in the fungal cell wall, identical or highly homologous, and should be updated per your experience:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12826451

And here, candida associated with elevated gliadin antibodies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19549274

Thanks again for the honor, Dr. BG, and for the very interesting bifido links. I'm just floored by the fact that up to 90% of the breastfed infant gut is bifidobacteria.

Tim Steele said...

Great job, Keith!

New paper, just out:

Dietary RS prevents urinary excretion of vitamin d metabolites and maintains circulating 25-hydroxycholecalciferol concentrations in zucker diabetic Fatty rats.

"RESULTS:

RS attenuated hyperglycemia by 41% (P < 0.01) and prevented urinary DBP excretion and albuminuria, which were elevated 3.0- (P < 0.01) and 3.6-fold (P < 0.01), respectively, in control diet-fed ZDF rats. Additionally, urinary excretion of 25D (P = 0.01) and 1,25D (P = 0.03) was higher (89% and 97%, respectively), whereas serum 25D concentrations were 31% lower (P < 0.001) in ZDF rats fed the control diet compared with RS-fed ZDF rats. Histopathologic scoring of the kidney revealed that RS attenuated diabetes-mediated damage by 21% (P = 0.12) despite an ∼50% decrease in megalin protein abundance.
CONCLUSIONS:

Taken together, these data provide evidence that suggests vitamin D balance can be maintained by dietary RS through nephroprotective actions in T2D, which are independent of vitamin D supplementation and renal expression of megalin."

from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25165393

Anonymous said...

Keith,

Here is a brief review of the book which includes an excellent lecture by the author:
http://jeffreydachmd.com/2014/03/dissolving-illusions-book-review-jeffrey-dach-md/

Thanks for the links in your comments.
Regina

Dr. B G said...

THx Regina!

Appreciate your comments Keith

Tim -- cool article! But I don't like most animal studies for RS2. They don't translate well to humans, not sure why.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24671124

Here another T2 D human trial with huge dose 40 g/day RS2. No statistical improvements and for some reason the fasting triglycerides were higher in the HAM-RS2 group. Thoughts? I talked about this I think in the Sorry RS2 won't induce fat loss (but inulin will) post
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/2014/08/sorry-resistant-starch-is-unlikely-to.html

Animals have hypolipidemic effects (like rabbits) with low chol and RS2 diets, but again, these don't translate to humans. Drugs too, failure to translate.

Tim -- has your lipids improved on RS3 or RS2 better or no diff with no RS?

I look at all animal studies with a skeptical eye now. The bile acids, handling of lipids/TGs and perhaps even SCFAs is different than the omnivorous human/ape physiology I suspect

Natasha :-) said...

Wow. Love hanging out with you guys. Fascinating! I love how our body is made.

Dr. B G said...

Is that Natasha the potato?

Isn't evolution a queen???!

Tim Steele said...

Grace - I was just pointing out the gut-kidney connection with Vit D loss/absorption.

Good point on animal studies!

This just out a couple weeks ago:

Housing experimental rats in solid-based cages with digestible bedding may confound outcomes of nutritional studies.

"CONCLUSION:

Maintaining rats in solid-based cages with corncob bedding alters large bowel fermentation and bacterial communities owing to ingestion of bedding. These changes may confound outcomes of nutritional studies, particularly those investigating the health effects of fibres. The use of wire-based caging may be justified in research of this type"

The study specifically mentions RS studies!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25242209

Anonymous said...

I love everything that is going on here in this blog but I am wondering... how can I get the GI FX test? That is the best one correct? What are my options??? I am under the impression that only physicians can order the tests so how do I find one that can do so? Thank you!!

Dr. Art Ayers said...

Keith,
I think that vitamin D3 is made from cholesterol precursors using UVB solar exposure in the skin. Further metabolites of D3 are produced by enzymes in the liver and kidney.

I think that the gut flora impact inflammation in the gut and the inflammatory signals alter vitamin D metabolism in the skin and other organs.

Vitamin D in the blood is transferred to the lining of the gut and binds to cytoplasmic receptors in intestinal epithelial cells. The receptor/vitamin D complexes change gene expression and antimicrobial peptides, e.g. defensin, are released into the intestinal lumin and modify gut flora.

The referenced article on fungal "gliadin" just showed similar sequences in both a fungal wall polyQ protein and gliadin, but similar sequences were found in polyQ proteins, regardless of source, and the antibodies with interact to a minor extent with all of them. I would say that the link between fungi and celiac is weak via gliadin and molecular mimicry. I think that the major point is that polyQ proteins are immunogenic, and disruption of gut flora leads to inflammation and Treg deficiency, leading to autoimmunity.

Dr. B G said...

Nick? Anon -- you may contact me but I've been buried. sorry


Tim~ Great study. I don't have access but I wonder if any study compares the animal intestinal microbiota v. human one, particularly our core phylogenic 'leaders.'

B longum is adapted for human and make up most of our healthy bifido populations. RS2 doesn't feed it in fact potato starch/HAM are 'anti-prebiotic' because RS2 LOWERS B. LONGUM ABUNDANCE AND ##. wtf

I think rodent studies cannot always be applicable to humans precisely because their flora may not have the human phylogenic Bifido like B longum which appears special to human guts and does not consume raw starches which scavenging rodents may be adapted to since deep evolutionary time.

Any thoughts why RS2 doesn't = RS3 effects? Or potentially (silently) worse?

Pig intestinal microbiota -- same? Cows have B animalis spp lactis (yogurt/cheese/raw milk/etc). I don't think much B longum either.

Dr. B G said...

Our prebiotics/probiotics/microbial exposures determines the gut flora. Do you we want a rodent flora 'profile' dominating or a human phylogenic, ancestral symbiont flora impression....????? Is there benefit in perpetuating a rodent gut? lol MIGHTY MOUSE!!

I think that is the key to the lack of human translation + apparent clinical human RS2 failures.

Tigernut man is extinct, and so his flora, no?

Any thoughts? Maybe I'm missing something

I've had the chance to see stool testing pre- and post- health recoveries from autoimmunity, celiac and even epic gut candida issues. This is what observe.

Dr. B G said...

Art

UR FRICKIN AWESOME. So polyQ is at the crossroads of fungal immunoreactivity and food (plant babies and the way evolution protects her babies).

John said...

Anonymous said...
I love everything that is going on here in this blog but I am wondering... how can I get the GI FX test? That is the best one correct? What are my options??? I am under the impression that only physicians can order the tests so how do I find one that can do so? Thank you!! I forgot to leave my name (I was the anonymous post above.. Sorry Dr. BG)

John said...

How can I contact you Dr. BG? Are you able to order the test for me? I believe you thought that the anonymous post was from Nick or Anon but it was from me. I am sorry for the confusion.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dr. B.G,

I see on your previous post that people with autoimmune sx shouldn't be taking rs2 until they get their gut health fixed.

I don't have an autoimmune disease but have some sx of one. I am seeing that fermented veggies and probiotics are important and would like to take probiotic aor 3 but notice it has ps in it. Is that the same as rs2 and could I still take it? Any other probiotics you recommend?

Thanks.

Dr. B G said...

John
Yes of course clikc on my name!


Anon,
The gut is an enigma/black-box until you do testing. Yes, RS2 appears to feed non-core species and this can be a problem. It depends on your black box. It is not scientific or evidence based, if data and evidence are being ignored. We are so lucky to have this technology at our fingertips now!

Can you imagine just a few years ago, it cost 400-700 dollars to analyze genus and species in fecal matter! Now we can have it down to the species level (GDX only -- not Amgut or ubiome sadly)!!! THIS IS TOTALLY WYLD and great for gut health.

Matt and I will be talking so much about this in the future. Matt and I are ordinary blokes but we are 'aware' of our bodies and do testing. We were both f*kced by potato starch and I think it is important to look at how, why, when, it works or does it insidiously and silently cause untold damage to frail gut ecosystems.

We get an awful amount of butyrate propionate and acetate and lactate from fermentation of many diverse plant fibers and cooked starches, as well as subsequent and proper amplification of the human gut symbionts.

If this is your goal, then looking at what's in the gut and what they like to eat is probably vital.

I think these core gut flora are very important for inner and outer health and should cared for very specially, particularly to overcome health conditions whether it's cancer, crc, metabolic conditions (fatty liver, gout, T2D, hypertention, coronary disease) or autoimmunity. Sorry for the spam!

Dr. B G said...

ON moderate cooked RS3, an n=1 example of high dose potato starch (RS2) created an impressively skewed gut fingerprint toward heavy Bacteroides, that was exhibiting only a fraction of the core immunoprotective flora. This pattern may not ideal for some although the person was fine; Tim felt great, no health problems.

Significantly missing?
F praus
Roseburia
Akkermansia
Eubacteria

http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/2014/09/dont-take-resistant-starch-alone-part-2.html

Dr. B G said...

Tim is the Neo of all GUT GODS!! Lol

John said...

Dr. BG, will it go to your scam? I emailed you a few days ago and did not hear back from you. Sorry to be a bother. I just really look forward to talking to you and want to make sure I can contact you correctly. I just clicked on your name and emailed. Hopefully, it reaches you.

Natasha :-) said...

Dear Grace,

Hi! Yes, it's Natasha - formerly "v. Potato".

I am considering doing the PH - Potato Hack. My weight has crept up pretty steadily since I stopped low carb. Of course, it was already creeping....which is why I was desperately going Keto and LCHF.

Anyway, I hit 203 today. I held 170-174 for years. My highest ever was 274. I'm 5'6",and would like to be 145.

I read up on Tim's VegetablePharm website, plus the PH forum on MDA. I bought 10 pounds of organic potatoes... Cooking up 5 pounds right now, half on the stove and half in the oven.

Not sure what will happen. My immune system might act up. But, I like to experiment. I will go slowly, meal by meal. If it is to much, I will back off. I will keep taking inulin, psyllium husk, Great Lakes Gelatin, as well as alternating the probiotics. Thoughts?

N. :-)

Anonymous said...

Natasha, you may want to add some beans / lentils to your potatoes. You can't overeat them without any sort of fat or dressing, believe me :)

Dr. B G said...

John
Thanks for your email, will respond!


Natasha
Do you think you have starch, potato and sugar eating vipers in the wrong places of your gut? I bet many of the beneficial symbionts are missing. Have you done any gut testing or are you blindly winging it?

The inability to reach certain health targets isn't necessarily genetic but the composition of the gut

Instead of a starch hack, how about try some kind of gut and hormone testing and make therapeutic decisions from there? Fix the root problems and I betcha many of the challenges you might be facing now will vanish immediately. It does for me!

I did a some fermented foods, SBOs and steamed purple potatoes then BOOM was able to eat anything again including gluten and dairy. My diet also had inulin rich foods and other probitoics. I had done signif seeding and weeding.

Tim has done YEARS AND YEARS and seeding (from his dirt filled farm and poopy garden lol) and weeding with a potent antifungal and antiparasitic/antimicrobial tea called chaga.

Nothing is overnight unless you've done the homework (or just lucky with a miracle)! Miracles are all good too but I trust we need to do our due diligence.

John said...

I look forward to hearing from you Dr. BG. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Dr B.G OR Ashwin Patel,


Ashwin said earlier...."What I am trying to convey is that Step one should be to take control of the Dysbiosis before RS introduction.Perhaps another important factor to address may be increased intestinal permeability or inflammation before introducing any prebiotics. If the gut lining is leaky then exposing it to more fermentation products will only mean their entry into the bloodstream."

So by fermentation products entering into the bloodstream...do you also mean fermented veggies ie kraut kvass and kimchi?

Unknown said...

Dr. Ayers, that's a fascinating general view of flora imbalance/inflammation altering vitamin D metabolism. And I agree evidence is weak re: Celiac and fungal gliadin, though fungal overgrowth is linked with major gut disease. I've wondered about bacterial DNA injected into human intestinal epithelial cells reacting with gliadin.

Adding to your construct, vitamin D level may be a matter of microbial synthesis and degradation. They produce and consume the precursors, block the receptor and degrade D as part of the enzymatic pathway. Yet vitamin D experts tout sunshine, supplements and diet amid a global rickets epidemic.

This may be proof of concept considering microbial synthesis of ergosterol where microbes interact with host enzymes and light/heat to manufacture D: "Surprisingly, the 25-hydroxy vitamin D2 was produced without additional vitamin D2. Endogenous ergosterol was likely converted into vitamin D2 by UV irradiation" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23548573

Btw, I'm a fan, especially the one about worms producing our vitamin C!!

Dr. B G said...

Anon,

Hope Ashwin and others chime in here. You asked: 'So by fermentation products entering into the bloodstream...do you also mean fermented veggies ie kraut kvass and kimchi?' The point of healing dysbiosis (which almost anyone with antiobits in their lifetime has) is to minimize damage and then to shift to a healthier microbiome.

Fermented foods (like anything) can be double edged swords. When I was ill/CFS, I couldn't tolerate any even soy sauce because of the mycotoxins. For others who don't have these immuno-reactivity, then fermented foods might be perfectly fine and produce healing results by supplying
--glucuronic acid
--acidity
--fermentation products (lactate, etc)
--SYNBIOTIC

Ancestral eating is synbiotic-focused that means you get the food for our flora and MORE FLORA (probiotics).

Anonymous said...

Hi Dr. B G,

Chaga! I was always perplexed that mushrooms are anti-fungal. (But I know to trust an asian or russian on health matters ;o) ). Chaga might be an especially good weeder if it does not distrupt gut flora as much as other botanical weeders (goldenseal, berberine, pau d'acro, etc...).
Regards, Regina

Anonymous said...

Grace,
What is your opinion of dark field live blood cell analysis. There is a chiropractor/herbalist/acupuncture office I have visited, which "relies" on this test to determine all kinds of information about nutrient deficiencies, leaky gut - bacteria and fungus and parasites present in the blood, and the ability to break down proteins. The test is cheaper than the ones that functional diagnostic practitioners use, which makes be suspicious that it is not valid, or they would use it. I'm guessing that it might actually work for some of those diagnoses, but not all. Weston Price foundation, used it in a study which showed that proteins from pork meat soaked in brine were more easily digested. I suppose even if it were all valid, it doesn't give you a breakdown of exactly which species of pathogens you are dealing with.
Anne

Anonymous said...

Here's a link to the study I mentioned above:

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/how-does-pork-prepared-in-various-ways-affect-the-blood/

I guess the question is off topic, but I brought it up because of the earlier comment about "fermentation products entering the bloodstream". The herbalist I mentioned, recommended avoiding fermented foods, because they said that the people who ate them and were tested using dark field live blood analysis, showed way more candida in the blood. I was wondering if there is any merit in the testing method or is it all nonsense?

Anne

Dr. B G said...

Anne

I think dark field analysis can be valid but I don't know much about. Anytime the foregut or hindgut are leaky and non-selectively permeable, things (a ton of things) will flow over into blood. That study on the WAPF link is interesting. In olden Japanese and chinese days, soy sauce was actually fermented and probably rich in acidic fermentation products like ACV. Mincing meat and letting it soak with soy sauce, garlic and ginger for 20-30min prior to stir fry may have been the traditional way to reduce parasites and microbes since there was no refrigeration.

Limiting fermented foods however may benefit during extreme intestinal permeability if the person had mycotoxin sensitivity or candida because wild yeasts and growth inducers for fungi are found there. Each person is individual in terms of that is tolerable. Some genetically are more sensitive. We need good soil probiotics to limit mycotoxins -- both in our food and our bodies, however! So fermented foods actually have the cultures that degrade mycotoxins. It's a double edged too, like all the ones at our disposal. Some are less helpful than others and it often depends on the person's gut journey and where they are in gut healing. Candida needs to be addressed 80-90% of the time.

Dr. B G said...

Regina

I'm finding out more and more fostering the 'community' and their inter collaboration is the most important. We do need good fungi but they work best when surrounded by the beneficial soil and other good symbionts. Maybe a ration 1:10 to 1:20 yeast to good bacteria. But that ratio is flipped is those with different conditions -- broken brain-gut particularly (brain fog, psychosis, delusional/lunatic, food addictions, T2D, metabolic syndrome, obesity, etc).

Exactly! Overweeding is as bad as antibiotics!

High dose potato starch is often worse than antibiotics by silently skewing an already damaged baseline gut!

Natasha :-) said...

Dear Grace,

Yes, I have to admit, I am doing this blindly - I have not had my gut tested. My husband lost his job in May and we are surviving on my income. We both thought he would be employed by now, but lots of people are out of work here. :-(

I know I don't have an "ancestral" gut. Natural birth, but soy-formula fed. But I have been around health food culture my whole life - my Mom is from LA.....

I have had my amalgam fillings out. Over the years I have spent $1,000's with Naturopaths, gone vegetarian (where I went up to 274 pounds), done gluten-free (never had a problem with gluten), candida diets, blood type diet, juice diets, pineapple diet, elimination diet, LC, LCHF, done cleanses of every kinds, taken enzymes of every kind, had regular colonics (now it makes me sad to think of the damage that did).

I have taken so many health pills, potions and tonics that I could write several alternative health books without taking a break. I've done it all.

In the end, I figured out what worked and what was hocus-pocus. So, now my health is good, stable. I went to university. I work. I got married. The only issue.... is weight.

Last winter I did "keto" low carb. I was eating bacon, eggs cooked in coconut oil...fat, fat, fat. I would even lick the plate to get the last drops of fat. Never gained, never lost! So frustrating!!

With you, Dr. Ayers, etc. I am doing SBO probiotics, prebiotics and fermented foods. Traditional foods done the traditional way.

So, I did two days of Potato Hack, then I stressed about not knowing exactly what is in my gut. So I stopped.


Even if I knew what I was missing, how could I "get back" what I never had?

Eating potatoes, allergies (grass, severe this year) and weight are my remaining issues.

Thanks,
Natasha

Dr. B G said...

Natasha

Youre like me! And now you are semi-trained in functional medicine!

Yes testing yields a lot -- one can pinpoint now why things are off. Because we are so sick, sometimes testing has to go very deep but the gut and urine testing yields a lot.

How is PH, potato hack? did you have prior intolerances to eating potatoes?

I think the PH is hypocaloric (high carb lol) so as a reset that may be the mechanisms. For adrenal fatigue however, anything fasting or perceived as fasting, VLC or IF, can be problematic because metabolism runs on adrenaline and demands cortisol.

Anonymous said...

You people are smart- a treat to lurk and learn, thx for your insights!

Natasha :-) said...

Dear Grace,

Hi! Yes, potato intolerant. Almost
10 years. Symptoms: severe pain in all joints (hips would be inflammed globes of pain), cry, hot, angry. This reaction to smallest amount of potato or potato starch. 6 months of AOR-3 everyday and a I am eating potatoes....trying Potato Hack. :-)

I lost ability to eat potatoes on a a low carb, low calorie diet. I lived for my 3 wheat crackers.... so I never lost the ability to eat wheat, but couldn't touch potatoes.

Weightloss wise...I stood in the sauce aisle at the Korean grocery (H-Mart). I tried to get non-corn syrup red pEpperson sauce.

I ate so much local kimchee that I had acid problems with my teeth. I made my own two.

Now I am wondering what raw milk can do for me.

I guess I just have to get my poo / gut tested. It's on my list. Also the 23 and me.... the full medical one is available here now.

I am curious. What other tests do I need? My adrenals are fine, IMO. High cortisol is possibility because I have had non-stop, bad stress for a few years.

N.

Dr. B G said...

Hi Natasha,

So did AOR-3 restore the potato tolerance? If so that is wonderful. You've started to heal the microvilli and immunity.

I think all those tests are a great start -- particularly the stool ones and looking at vipers/parasites/yeasts. What you complain of is typical of this profile and the lack of the good gut symbionts.