All chronic/lifestyle diseases be it diabetes, thyroid, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Anxiety, Depression & autoimmune diseases are the result of chronic inflammation. So the question arises how this chronic inflammation arises? This dreaded inflammation occurs because our second brain- gut microbiome is out of balance. When the gut microbiome is out of balance, our immune system is out of balance since 70% of our immune system is along our gut lining.
It all boils down to what we eat! The food we eat feeds our micro-biome & when our gut is out of balance, our immune system is disturbed & our body is not at ease. When our body is not at ease is when we call it disease. Before we explain this further, let us go back to where it all started even before human beings came into existence. On this planet earth, these single cell microorganisms- bacteria, fungi, algae, viruses & mould are around for billions of years where human beings have been around for a couple hundred of years. So how these humans got created?
I am going to narrate a story to better understand these microorganisms!
All these microorganisms came together one day & said that they are bored of living in this place & they want to find a different place to live so that they can conquer the world. So smarter one of the entire lot of these bacterias proposed why don’t we create something where trillions of us can inside it & can keep the newly created ecosystem healthy. These creatures called human beings are going to find food across the world to feed us. As humans were evolving, these microorganisms started to worry- what if these human beings became more smarter than us & the young ones of these microorganisms asked the smarter one- what we will do if they got smarter than us? The smarter of these organisms said to others- do not worry! Right inside their cells is our brother mitochondria( the energy powerhouse)- an ancient bacteria with whom we talk all the time. If humans go out of control, we turn off the energy source & they die. Similarly, we have a direct connection with the brain through the vagus nerve. What happens in the gut, goes everywhere. We control what happens in their brain & we let them know what we want through neurotransmitters. In fact, 90% of serotonin- the happiness driver in humans is produced by us. Their entire decision making, behaviour & what they do is controlled by us.
We, human beings are ecosystems in ourselves & are home to trillions microorganisms. When we start adopting unhealthy habits & feeding gut wrong, our ecosystem starts to suffer & accordingly our body gets impacted. Similarly, when we are impacting our external ecosystem – the environment, our bodies start to suffer.
Earlier, our body was a closed box and we did not know what was healthy. Therefore we resorted to a lot of fat diets- paleo, ketogenic, atkins etc. which has done more damage than benefit to our entire internal ecosystem. There is nothing called healthy food or inflammatory food. A healthy food for one person may be toxin for others since each individual’s gut-microbiome composition & diversity is different. Besides, a food healthy for you today & may not be healthy for you in 6 months from now. So why this happens? Each individual’s body is distinctive & unique. When we eat food, it reaches our digestive system and is broken down by our micro-biome & it either produces nutrients our body needs or releases toxins that create inflammation in our body. This is done through releasing metabolites. For instance, spinach may be beneficial for a person but not for your friend or even your wife. The reason is when spinach is broken down it releases oxalate. If we do not have oxalobactor, spinach will not be metabolised & would be fed by someone else which will release lipopolysaccharide (LPS or endotoxin) that will create inflammation in the body. The fact is you should have the right kind of organisms in your gut to digest them else even if you eat walnuts or have pomegranate juice & you do not have right bacteria to digest them you will hurt your body & create inflammation.
Ketosis has been a buzz word & people adopting this fad diet to shed weight. However, people who adopt a ketosis or eat minimal or no carbs actually signal their gut bacteria & in turn our bacteria start eating up gut lining which leads to leaky & provides an opportunity to microorganism to enter the bloodstream. This can result in chronic inflammation & directly impacts our immune system.
So why is the gut so important? Our body has only 20,000 human genes & more than 20 million foreign genes( micro organisms).The fact is our body has more of foreign cells than human cells & the metabolites( molecules) which our gut micro-biome releases on breaking down the food we eat can change your gene expression epigenetically. They are training the immune system.
Dreaded disease such as pancreatic cancer & breast cancer has a lot to do with keeping our gut health intact. The reason why we have pancreatic cancer is microbes in our gut move to our bloodstream( due to leaky gut) & shuts down our immune system. This is surprising to note that therapy for your cancer whether it saves you or kills you depends upon your micro-biome & how it metabolises the drug.
Does Micro-biome release toxins when we are stressed?
Why are we told that doing a workout, yoga or meditation help you release our stress, depression or anxiety or why we should workout everyday? Any thoughts? Oh it helps you improve your metabolism & increase your fat burn rate! Is it only about fat loss? Not really? It is about our immune system- our immune system is always alert & in response to fight or flight situations, it may create a wall also known as low grade inflammation to fight against pathogens that may harm our immunity & overall body. This is specifically true when we talk of communicable diseases.
However, when we eat something, it gets broken down & digested in our gut & gut micro-biome releases either nutrients or toxins. If it releases toxins such as Lipopolysaccharide( endotoxin probably because we do not have a particular bacteria that digests a particular food) which gets absorbed in the bloodstream & causes inflammation( to protect our immunity). However in today’s life we are in regular stress due to our work, family, studies, relationships, children etc.
This makes our immune system alert & results in chronic inflammation, leading to release of cortisol & giving a message to our gut micro-biome that they are being attacked. our Gut bacteria immediately act & bring the digestive system to halt. This can result in a lot of digestive issues, IBD , obesity– etc. However when you indulge in some sort of physical activity, it gives a message & the cortisol level is reduced thereby bringing our digestive system to normal.
Let us talk about the most important part- Inflammation! How inflammation can be manifested in different ways.
Inflammation is not localised, it happens across the body since everything is connected. It always breaks at the weakest link. So if you are habitual drinker, your liver would be attacked first. The same type of inflammation may cause diabetes in one person while IBD or obesity to another. So if you have diabetes & you take medicine, next you may get an IBD symptom & you would take drugs or medicine for that. Ultimately, this is a reactive solution not a preventive solution & most pharmaceutical companies are thriving their business on chronic inflammation & diseases. Therefore by the time you cross 55, you are taking more medicines than actual food. Please remember “ CHRONIC DISEASES ARE PREVENTABLE” .
Talking of diabetes, it is not your fault. Diabetes is an inflammatory response. It happens when you have a leaky gut which we have discussed above.
Normally, we are always told that depending upon physical activity we should consume protein from 0.8 g per kg of body weight to 2.2 g per KG of body weight. However, this is all wrong. When we start eating excess protein( as most trainers, gyms will tell you), it directly creates ammonia & toxins in your body that can lead to leaky gut & chronic inflammation. Let us discuss how it happens. When we consume protein it goes into the small intestine where it is digested. If we have excess protein, the small intestine is not able to digest it & it goes into your colon(where all gut bacteria live). For these bacteria , protein is a new thing and they create protein fermenters which break down protein & release Ammonia in the body. High protein consumption is going to have a detrimental impact on your health.
To sum up, Gut Microbiome is our second brain & leaky gut is the reason for occurrence of all chronic diseases. Evaluating the interaction between our nutrition & gut microbiome can help us overcome risk of lifestyle diseases. To unlock & decode your gut microbiome composition, sign up for our health intelligence services here.
