Blog: Note on the under-rated organ

As the year is coming to an end, I’ve gathered together all the evidence that helped me in “curing IBS”. Last I wrote a blog in June, and I’ve mentioned microbiome, but after reading GUT the inside story of our body's most under-rated organ (2015) by Giulia Enders, I finally understand everything better and I want to share some knowledge with you. Since the gut looks A-Okay, I buried my head into food intolerances or food sensitivities, and realized I’m sensitive to wheat and corn (the two most commonly used and processed grains).

I recommend the book to everyone, not just those suffering from IBS or some other GI disease, it’s easy to follow and gives a lot of information on how our guts work.

First... squatty potty:

“The closure mechanism of our gut is not designed in such a way that it can open the hatch completely when we are seated. Squatting has been the natural pooing position for humans since time immemorial. The modern sitting toilet has existed only since indoor sanitation became common, in the late 18th century.”

You can get a squatty potty for your toilet, it really makes a difference.

Second... food sensitivities 

The wall of our gut can become temporarily more porous, allowing food remains to enter the tissue of the gut and the bloodstream (like a short time after a course of antibiotics, after a heavy bout of drinking (alcohol) or even as a result of stress. Once in bloodstream our immune system starts attacking those cells. When the body has return to a healthy equilibrium, even a sensitive gut can usually sort itself out.

“What plants want is to reproduce – plants respond by making their seeds poisonous. The more danger a plant senses the more poisonous it will make its seeds. Wheat is such a worrier because it has only a very short window of opportunity for its seeds to grow and carry on the family line. In insects, gluten has the effect of inhibiting an important digestive enzyme. 

In humans, gluten can pass into the cells of the gut in a partially undigested state. There it can slacken the connections between individual cells. This allows wheat proteins to enter areas they have no business being in. That, in turn, raises the alarm of our immune system. One person in a hundred has a genetic intolerance to gluten, but a considerably higher proportion, suffer from gluten sensitivity.”

Fructose malabsorption is also on the rise. Sugar substitute in found in most processed foods, so we ingest overall more fructose than in the past, so we can say we live in fruit over-abundance. Fructose intolerance can lead to depression (sugar binds protein tryptophan, when sugar doesn’t get absorbed, we lose tryptophan as well, which is important for production of serotonin).

Something we probably forgot:
“While our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate up to five hundred different local roots, herbs and other plants in a year, a typical modern diet includes seventeen different agricultural plant crops, at most. It is not surprising that our gut has a few problems with a dietary change of that scale.”

Thirdly... IBS

“Experiencing negative emotions can arise via the gut-brain axis – when the gut’s threshold is lowered, or the brain insists on having information it would not normally receive. Such a state of affairs may be caused by tiny but persistent (micro-) inflammations, bad gut flora, or undetected food intolerances. The altered circumstances that stress creates in the gut allow different bacteria to survive there than in periods of low stress. We could say that stress changes the weather in the gut.”

They have found that Lactobacillus reuteri is able to inhibit pain sensors in the gut, which IBS and IBD sufferers can benefit from.

“Of our entire microbiome – that is all the micro-organisms that team on the inside and outside of our bodies – 99% are found in the gut. Not because there are so few elsewhere, but because there are simply so inconceivably many in the gut. Our gut microbiome can weigh up to two kilos and contains about 100 trillion bacteria. The vast majority of our immune system (about 80%) is located in the gut.”

I’ve heard that in some countries take a different care of newborns born by a C-section, trying to colonize their guts, but that is a rare occasion, maybe in the future they will give them a chance to develop the right microbiome. 

“It is now generally accepted that the first populations to colonise our gut lay the main foundations for the future of our entire body. Studies have shown the importance of those first few weeks of postnatal bacteria-collecting for the development of the immune system. Just three weeks after birth, the metabolic products of our gut flora may predict our increased risks of allergies, asthma, or neurodermatitis in later life. Our skin flora are not as strictly controlled as those in the birth canal, and are much more exposed to the outside world. Whatever gathers on the skin could soon end up in baby’s belly. Children born by caesarean section take months or even longer to develop a normal population of gut bacteria.”

“Bacteria help to feed us, make some foods more digestible, and produce their own substances. Some scientists now support the theory, that our gut microbita can be considered an organ.”

Ever heard of water kefir?
 

I’ve happily been making it for few months now, and it seems to help, it also tastes good. It has lots of good bacteria and certain type of yeast is supposed to help with IBS. Either way, it’s a good idea, to give the gut microbiom a fighting chance ;) Click here for a study on food sensitivities and gut flora.

Hope this information will help! :)

PS: and it doesn't hurt to meditate ;) 

PPS: and I've found an interesting documentary on the subject :) LINK