Tocotrienols, Probiotics and PhosphoGlycolipids: A Perfect Prescription for the Liver?
By Michael Ash, BSc, DO, ND, F.DipIOn
One of my primary areas of research and expertise is the gut microbiota and its diverse impact on our health. Your liver receives nearly 70% of its blood supply from the intestine, and represents a first line of defence against gut-derived antigens. Intestinal bacteria—and the antigens they produce—play a key role in the maintenance of gut-liver axis health. Modulation of the gut microbiota to achieve and maintain symbiosis represents a new way to treat or prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Along with the concomitant use of tocotrienols and glycophospholipids, we may be starting to see the emergence of a truly profound intervention for a complex metabolic disease, using safe,natural compounds.
Read the rest of this page »
RA – Bacteria, Diet and Hormones a Fixable Mix?
Read the rest of this page »
Rheumatoid arthritis! – these are not the words anyone wants to hear when they start to experience joint discomfort. It quite naturally engenders fear and worry as the tretaments offered are in themselves a challenge in most cases and avoiding effective treatment can predispose an individual to a shortened and miserable life.
Interactive Bacteria Chart
The journal Scientific American in their June 2012 issue looked at the social network of the bacteria in our digestive tract and on our skin. As I have previously stated the role of our commensal bacteria as significant players in our health and function is becoming more and more understood. Whilst those of us involved in alternative, complementary or functional medicine have regarded the digestive tract and its commensal inhabitants as a primary partner in the hunt for health – it is still a strange concept to the majority of clinicians who still focus on bacteria as the enemy.
The diagram below is extracted from the June edition of Scientific American, if you visit their interactive site, more can be learnt about the bacteria including links to a variety of related papers.
Copyright held by Scientific American
Breast is Best for Gut Bacteria
Read the rest of this page »
Whilst the findings may seem consistent with our current understanding of the relationships between the gastrointestinal tracts bacterial maturation and immune functionality – the relationship between competence and breast milk, from a neonate’s immune perspective has been expanded following the publication of this study in Genome Biology.[1]
Microbes and Us
Read the rest of this page »
Over the past several years, studies have revealed an astonishing diversity in our so-called microbiome. A five year project utilising researchers from around the world has been constructed to identify our mutual cohabitants that define our microbiome.[1] In Europe the MetaHIT project has pulled 8 countries and 13 academic partners together to add further data to this project.[2]
Food and Our Bacterial Mix – Can we really change them both?
A few weeks ago (June 2012), a paper in Nature by a group of researchers suggested that despite the vast geographical and nutritional differences in the human population, that just three predominant bacterial clusters (referred to as enterotypes hereafter) could explain all of our gastric microbial mixes.[1] This they suggest indicates the existence of a limited number of well-balanced host–microbial symbiotic states that might respond differently to diet and drug intake.
Each of these three enterotypes are identifiable by the variation in the levels of one of three genera: Bacteroides (enterotype 1), Prevotella (enterotype 2) and Ruminococcus (enterotype 3). These enterotypes are not as sharply delimited as, for example, human blood groups; they are, in contrast, densely populated areas in a multidimensional space of community composition. They are nevertheless likely to characterise individuals, in line with previous reports that gut microbiota are quite stable in individuals and can even be restored after perturbation.[2]
Read the rest of this page »
Bugs, Guts and Research
For the majority of the last 100 years the role of bacteria in human health has been explored in terms of risk to health and well-being, the ‘bad bug = bad health’ paradigm. The result has been a combination of remarkable benefits against infectious related deaths and a slow but steady development of chronic non communicable diseases (CNCDs) – cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases now kill more people worldwide than all other diseases combined.
This rate of demise will continue to rise in the coming years as the global population ages, sedentary lifestyles and inappropriate food consumption continues to spread across the world.
Read the rest of this page »
Microbes Are What You Eat
Most nutritional therapists and others that regard the role of the bacterial populations in the human gut as being a significant part of our capacity to operate and function in health or otherwise, understand that food choice has an effect.
A recent study on mice published in Science raises some very interesting early observations.[1] The same group published an earlier study exploring the same strategy.[2] Aware that food choices alter bacterial colony ratios and may favour certain bacterial species over others, mice were impregnated with a small number of commonly found human bacteria (10) and then were fed, via human pureed baby food concentrations of 4 commonly consumed ingredients. The researchers state that some 60% of the variation in species is attributable to dietary food choice.
Read the rest of this page »
Probiotics and Lecithin cause heart disease?
Read the rest of this page »
Diet, intestinal bacteria and liver metabolism to the generation of a chemical that promotes the build-up of arterial plaque and cardiovascular disease is the proposal in the alarmingly interesting paper published in the internationally respected Journal; Nature.[1] What we shout, how can two not simply innocuous but beneficial agents gang up to contribute to the cause of the world’s leading promoter of disease and death? Read on to find out..
Gut Flora, Probiotics and Vitamins A+D – Do they influence Allergy and Autoimmunity.
Michael Ash BSc, DO, ND FDipION
The fields of immunology, microbiology, nutrition, epigenetics and metabolism are rapidly converging utilising a systems biology methodology to explain our intimate relationships with our microbial cohabitants. For over 30 years data has been building to scientifically support the hypothesis that intestinal cohabitants operate in a collective manner with macro and micro food intakes to shape and define our immune systems from an early age. The result is a collective impact bound by mutual cooperation that may have unintended consequences including a wide range of pathologies.
Read the rest of this page »
