Gut Flora

Hungry Microbiome: The Digestive System
An overview of the alimentary canal from the mouth to the
esophagus, to the stomach and small and large intestines, and
finally to the rectum.

Written & illustrated by Armando Hasudungan.

Transcript here: https://csironewsblog.files.wordpress...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWB3XYj-NAM

The Hungry Microbiome:

What are the molecular effects of butyrate?

Published on Feb 5, 2015

An animated look at the molecular effects of Butyrate.

Written and illustrated by Armando Hasudungan.

Transcript can be found here: https://csironewsblog.files.wordpress...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Zd7SNF07PpM

Mind-Altering Microbes:
How the Microbiome Affects Brain and Behavior:
by Elaine Hsiao at TEDxCaltech

Elaine Hsiao is a postdoctoral fellow in chemistry
and biology at Caltech. She received her
undergraduate degree in microbiology, immunology
and molecular genetics from UCLA and her doctoral
degree in neurobiology from Caltech with Professor Paul
Patterson. She studied neuroimmune mechanisms
underlying the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental
disorders and uncovered a role for the commensal
microbiota in regulating autism-related behaviors,
metabolism, and intestinal physiology. Elaine has
received several honors, including predoctoral
fellowships from the National Institute of Health,
Autism Speaks and the Caltech Innovation Program.
She is currently studying the mechanisms by which
microbes modulate host production of neuroactive
molecules and aims to better understand how the
human microbiota influences health and disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWT_BLVOASI


The Hungry Microbiome:
Why Resistant Starch is Good for You
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI3KtR3LoqM


Visualizing Good Gut Bacteria
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkeV37nND1Q


Resistant Starch & Butyrate
Google Search: +"Resistant Starch" +"Colon Cancer" +"butyrate"
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Resistant Starch (Wikipedia)

[Excerpt]
Resistant starch (RS) is starch and starch degradation
products that escape from digestion in the small
intestine of healthy individuals.[1] Resistant starch
is considered the third type of dietary fiber, as it
can deliver some of the benefits of insoluble fiber
and some of the benefits of soluble fiber.

Some carbohydrates, such as sugars and most starch,
are rapidly digested and absorbed as glucose into the
body through the small intestine and subsequently used
for short-term energy needs or stored. Resistant
starch, on the other hand, resists digestion and passes
through to the large intestine where it acts like
dietary fiber.

Resistant starch has been categorized into four types:

_ RS1 Physically inaccessible or digestible resistant
starch, such as that found in seeds or legumes and
unprocessed whole grains

_ RS2 Resistant starch that occurs in its natural
granular form, such as uncooked potato, green banana
and high amylose corn

_ RS3 Resistant starch that is formed when starch-containing
foods are cooked and cooled, such as legumes, bread,
cornflakes, potatoes, sushi rice[citation needed] or
pasta salad.[2] Occurs due to retrogradation, which
refers to the collective processes of dissolved starch
becoming less soluble after being heated and dissolved
in water and then cooled.

_ RS4 Starches that have been chemically modified to resist
digestion. This type of resistant starches can have a
wide variety of structures and are not found in nature.

Source URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch


The Invisible Universe Of The Human Microbiome

NPR : Nov 5, 2013

The next time you look in a mirror, think about this:
In many ways you're more microbe than human. There are
10 times more cells from microorganisms like bacteria
and fungi in and on our bodies than there are human cells.
But these tiny compatriots are invisible to the naked eye.
So we asked artist Ben Arthur to give us a guided tour of
the rich universe of the human microbiome.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DTrENdWvvM



The Human Microbiome and What We Do to It
Published on May 31, 2012

Did you know that you and I are only 1% human — we've
90 trillion cells which don't belong to us. Yes we are
more bacteria than human.

Have you ever wondered what it means to be human? It
turns out that only a tiny percentage of what you and I
are made of is actually human — and we need our non-human
bits to survive. This part of us now has a name — it's
called our microbiome. But we're doing dreadful things
to this hidden majority and it's damaging our health
as a result. From the Tonic series produced with the
assistance of NPS.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZSuwkx7Ik


The Gut Flora: You and Your 100 Trillion Friends:
Jeroen Raes at TEDxBrussels
Published on Nov 14, 2012
Jeroen Raes is a bionaut, he researches the human
microbiome. What he's discovered in his lab at the
Flanders Institute of Biology could herald a major
breakthrough not just in gastro-intestinal medicine,
but in our fundamental knowledge of the human biology.
It turns out that there are only three different
types of gut bacteria and, just like blood groups,
the three types are totally independent of race,
sex, age or diet. Such a baffling finding leads to
more research of course and Raes is currently testing
his idea on a larger group . The implications for
Crohn's Disease or obesity could be dramatic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af5qUxl1ktI



Gut Flora, Disease and Obesity

Tuesday, July 15, 2014
The health of your gut flora (the interacting trillions
of bacteria of a couple of hundred different species that
make up the pound of bacteria that you carry primarily in
your large intestines) is more important than your
genetics to your overall health. Thus, your health is a
result of diet, gut flora adapted to your diet and exercise.
Everything else, your genetic risks, environmental
toxins, etc. are of only minor impact.

I am trying to paint the big picture of how the food
that you eat and your gut flora interact to determine
your health, by which I mean whether you get sick, become
obese and/or bloat with gas.

Health Depends on Gut Flora
If you are healthy, you have a couple of hundred different
species of bacteria that help you to digest the protein,
fats and carbs that you eat in meat and vegetables. Your
body easily digests protein and fats in meat, fish, eggs
and dairy, because enzymes to digest them are present in
your stomach and small intestines. The only carbs that your
body can digest are some simple sugars and starch. The rest
of the polysaccharides present in plants cannot be digested
without the help of bacteria. The polysaccharides that your
gut flora can digest are fermentable, soluble fiber ,
e.g. resistant starch, pectin, inulin, arabinogalactan,
xylans, beta-glucan, etc. If you can’t digest soluble fiber,
because you have damaged gut flora, dysbiosis, and are missing
essential bacterial species normally found in a healthy gut,
then the soluble fiber just passes through as insoluble fiber
 and readily dehydrates into hard, constipated stools. Partial
digestion due to just a few missing bacterial species produces
the symptoms of food intolerances.

Constipation Results from Dysbiosis
The bottom line is that the volume of healthy, soft, firm
stools is made up of gut flora that digested dietary soluble
fiber and converted it into more bacteria. If you eat more
soluble fiber, this food for your gut flora, will produce
proportionately more bowel movements.

Gut Flora Guide Immune System Development
Most of cells of your immune system are in the lining of your
gut and there are particular species of gut bacteria directly
involved in the development of immune cells that have different
functions as they spread throughout your body. Some of these
cells are aggressive and attack pathogens, while others make
sure that the aggression doesn’t get out of control and cause
autoimmune diseases or allergies .

Gut Flora Divided into Groups to Show Involvement in Disease
Recent studies have demonstrated the role of gut bacteria in

producing nutrients, vitamins and neurotransmitters. To highlight

the essential role of gut flora in disease, I have divided the

hundreds of species of gut bacteria into groups to illustrate their

direct involvement in development of the immune system and

regulation of the flow of dietary nutrients involved in obesity.

A recent study shows that an infection can produce a change in

gut flora associated with marshaling additional fatty acid

nutrients for the host instead of just producing more gut flora.

Chronic change of gut flora in this way leads to obesity. Other

types of dysbiosis contribute to infections, cancer, autoimmune

disease, allergies, food intolerances, gas and bloating.

Group A Bacteria Provide Aggressive Immunity
There are several dozen species of bacteria in healthy gut flora,

including the filamentous bacteria, that trigger the development

of the aggressive part of your immune system that attacks

pathogens, and kills cells of your body that are infected with

viruses or are cancerous. Most antibiotics don’t permanently

damage this group of bacteria, so after a course of antibiotics

you can usually still stop infections. Excessive suppression of

aggressive immunity contributes to cancer.

Group B Bacteria Provide Suppressive Immunity
There are dozens of other species of bacteria, including

Clostridia , that control the development of the suppressive

half of your immune system that produces immune cells, such

as regulatory T cells, Tregs , that stop the aggressive cells of

your immune system from attacking your own cells and

innocuous things such as food and pollen. Many common

antibiotics damage these species of bacteria and are thought

to contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases and

allergies. Inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by a

simplified gut flora with only half the healthy number of

bacterial species. Resistant starch preferentially feeds these

bacteria to enhance suppressive immunity and in some

individuals cure autoimmune disease.

Group C Bacteria Convert Soluble Fiber to Short Chain

Fatty Acids (SCFA)
The fermentable soluble fiber in your diet is typically from

vegetables and it is converted by the largest and most diverse

group of bacterial species into short chain fatty acids. Each

different plant polysaccharide, and there are hundreds,

requires many enzymes for complete digestion to the simple

molecules used by the bacteria to make its own proteins, fats

and polysaccharides. Absence of bacteria that are specialized

for the digestion of particular polysaccharides or other dietary

components can disrupt gut flora and cause digestive

disturbances that are experienced as food intolerances (also

confused with food allergies that are rare.) Some of the

bacterial species convert polysaccharides into butyric acid

and other short chain fatty acids that are the major source of

energy for cells that form the lining of the intestines. These

SCFAs are also a major food source for other gut bacteria.

Group D Bacteria Convert SCFAs to Fecal Bacteria to

Produce Bulk of Bowel Movements
In healthy people, the SCFAs produced by gut flora feed the

intestines and the remainder produced in the large bowel is

converted into more gut bacteria, which forms soft stools.

Antibiotics typically damage these bacteria and result in

constipation. These bacteria are typically more sensitive to

antibiotics than those that digest the soluble fiber and

produce SCFAs, so the excess SCFAs pass into the

bloodstream and contribute to obesity instead of stools.

Lean mice with gut flora exchanged from obese mice,

become obese. Cattle are fed antibiotics to enhance the

conversion of corn polysaccharides into SCFAs and

body fat prior to slaughter.

Group E Bacteria convert Soluble Fiber to Methane and

Hydrogen, Bloat
Increased volume of the intestines, bloating, results from

conversion of soluble fiber into methane, hydrogen and

carbon dioxide gases. Some of this gas is absorbed into

the blood and can pass from the large intestines, through

the blood, and back to the stomach and small intestines.

Helicobacter pylori , the cause of stomach ulcers and

gastric cancer, can utilize hydrogen from the blood as

an energy source.

In Summary:
A+B+C+D = healthy, normal weight
A+C+D = normal weight, autoimmunity and allergies
B+C+D = normal weight, susceptibility to cancer, chronic Lyme disease, food poisoning
A+B = normal weight, constipated
A+B+C = obese, constipated
A+B+D = normal weight, food intolerances
A+B+C+E = obese, constipated, bloated

Cure for Dysbiosis and Associated Diseases is Repair of Gut Flora
The excitement about the use of resistant starch (RS) and probiotics with Clostridia

and other soil bacteria to reverse the symptoms of autoimmune diseases is based on

the ability to repair gut flora damaged by poor nutrition and antibiotics. Low

carbohydrate diets that do not provide soluble fiber to feed gut flora lead to

dysbiosis and chronic diseases. Resistant starch, as the name suggests, passes on to

the colon by avoiding digestion with amylases in the small intestines and acts as a

soluble fiber to feed gut flora in the colon. Clostridia convert the RS to sugars and

SCFAs usable by other gut flora. Note that some species of Clostridia produce

toxins and it is these pathogens that take over in hospitals after the healthy species

are killed off with antibiotics. Fecal transplants are the best treatment for these

hospital acquired infections.

I have discussed the role of hygiene, muddy veggies, fermented foods, etc. in several

other posts on repair of gut flora.

Complete repair of gut dysbiosis is possible, but it requires more than just changes

in diet and dairy probiotics, as typically recommended erroneously by the medical industry.

Health is dependent on:
    1. an Anti-Inflammatory Diet ,
    2. gut flora adapted to your diet
    3. exercise and
    4. adequate sleep

The rest (genetics, vegan vs. paleo, environmental toxins, organic veggies, GMOs, etc.)

are minor contributors, less than 10% in aggregate, to overall health.
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http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com/2014/07/gut-flora-disease-and-obesity.html