The Power of the Microbiome

Summary:

The Power of the Microbiome

• All diseases begin in the gut. -Hippocrates
• The human microbiome: an organ in its own right.
• The microbiome is the genetic material of all the microbes - bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses - that live on and inside the human body. The microbiome may weigh as much as five pounds.
  • Healthy adult harbors ~100 trillion bacteria in gut alone
  • This is 10X the number of human cells we Possess.
  • Humans possess 23,000 genes
  • Microbiome contributes ~3,300,000
  • Communal gut microbial genome (microbiome) is ~150 times larger than human genome
• The main external factors that can affect the composition of the microbial community in generally healthy adults include major dietary changes and antibiotic therapy.
• The human microbiome has extensive functions such as development of immunity, defense against pathogens, host nutrition including production of short-chain fatty acids important in host energy metabolism, synthesis of vitamins and fat storage as well as an influence on human behavior, making it an essential organ of the body without which we would not function correctly
• Human Microbiome ecosystems differ from place to place much like forests or coral reefs
• Diet Influences Microbiome Composition

Metabolic Capacity by Microbiome

• Bacteria express glycoside hydrolase which converts glycans into usable sugars
• No enzyme encoded in human genome is capable of digesting glycans—only bacterial enzymes.
• Many carbohydrates are digestible only by bacteria and produce SCFAs—primary fuel for colonocytes.
• 10‐15% of adult energy may be generated by SCFA production or stored as fat.

Host‐Microbiome Alignment

• Microbiome may cause disease, directly or indirectly, when delicate balance is perturbed.
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Stress/anxiety
  • Heart disease
  • Allergic disorders
  • IBD
  • Cancer

[ The following is the full transcript from this week's post. This is a health blog with a focus on weight loss. Please consider that all episodes are unscripted, direct to camera, with focused talking points. ]

Hippocrates was quoted as saying, that all disease begins in the gut.

And there is a lot of truth in that, that your gut has a huge impact on disease, but I think the other side of the coin is that your health and wellness begin in the gut.

So, today, I want to talk to you about your gut microbiome, what this is, is we used to think of the digestive system. The two of the boughs was really just storage and transport of waste tool, that it really didn't do anything for the body.

And we are learning that this is not the case at all.

The gut does a tremendous number of things for us to help us live healthy, but it also can have a huge impact on your illness and sickness.

So, it is important to understand kind of how your microbiome is.

First, what is the microbiome?

Well, somebody would actually consider its own organ.

And what really is basically all the kind of the gut bugs that live within your digestive system. So, there's bacteria, the fungi, protozoa, there's viruses, and these all live within our digestive system.

And if you are healthy with this, it can be a symbiotic relationship, meaning that we help support them and they help support us. I will talk a little bit about some disease pathology when they do not live in that type of co-operative relationship.

But for the most part, there is a lot of things you can do to ensure that your in good gut health,

Let us just talk about it.

The microbiome is estimated to weigh about 5lbs.

A normal healthy adult will harbor anywhere from 100 trillion bacteria in the gut alone.

So, that is 10 times the number of human cells that we have. The human genome is basically 23,000 genes. And the microbiome, they think, is around three point three million, so about 150 times larger than the human genome.

While it is inside of us, and not something we necessarily see, it has a huge impact, and it has quite a bit of variability.

There is lots of things that really affect your microbiome, but two big things are, what you are eating. And then secondary antibiotics and it is really important to understand this because you know us as physicians, we prescribe antibiotics for various, colds or illnesses. And sometimes it is certainly not indicated and sometimes the patients are very demanding and want an antibiotic.

But you need to understand there's consequences with that.

The physicians only should use antibiotics when it is appropriate but secondarily, you do not need an antibiotic for every little runny nose you have or cough you have. In fact, the detrimental side effects of antibiotics to your microbiome is max and that can be very disruptive to your gut health.

So, do not be one of those people that thinking it antibiotic every time you have a cough or a little cold, because it is going to be very detrimental to your health.

But then secondarily, we will talk more about your diet and weight you need us to.

The microbiome we are learning about has tremendous number of functions.

It has a big function in your immune system, it regulates how well your immune system works, it is very important in energy and metabolism.

And, and we are learning that there's things that the bacteria are doing for us, that we do not have the ability to do for ourselves, such as there is a certain vitamin that are synthesized within the microbiome that we do not have the ability to produce.

And so, there is a lot of things the microbiome does to help us, so we really should do everything we can help support it. And make sure it is as healthy as possible, because there are a lot of disease processes that are also associated with your microbiome, that is dysfunctional, or not being well maintained.

So, there's things that the Davies, kind of the gut buddies, are doing for us. We should take care to look out for him.

One of the things that they do is, they can basically process polysaccharide called glycans and that is something as humans we do not have the ability to process. And these bacteria can cross this down into basically small chain fatty acids that we can then use this energy or storing fat.

So, when we talk about different types of fiber people and people say, fibers not digestible, which is true. We do not, we do not have the ability to digest fiber.

But for our microbiome, there are certain types of fiber that they can digest and convert them into those small chain fatty acids that then we can use for energy.

Why that is really important is because the cellular lining of the digestive system use small chain fatty acids as their primary source of energy.

And so obviously if they have inadequate energy, then they are not going to be functioning well, that leads to what is called leaky gut, things like that.

It is important to understand that we got to feed our gut buddies to give them what they like.

So, it is understanding what type of things it is that they like, so that takes me to diet.

The interesting thing is to think of your microbiome, it is like a coral reef, they are different. Wherever you are out in the world, they are not the same. And that is because the diet is so different amongst the world's population.

So, the microbiome what might be found in one area, the United States, might be significantly different from somewhere else like Japan or something like that.

Understand that diet is extremely important in this game, but then also understand that, that there is some commonality.

So, you can do things to, to change your microbiome, with just a few simple meals. Whether it is changing it for good or changing it for bad, so it is important to understand how that works, and so, what your diet is essential to this.

Now, the microbiome really likes whole food, plant-based things, you know, green, leafy vegetables, things like that.

But the important thing is, for you to kind of understand that this is something that has a huge effect, not only on your physical health, but we are also learning that your mental health is impacted by your microbiome to, we are actually learning that there's kind of this communication channel between the brain and the gut, the gut and the brain that is working together to help maintain kind of the ideal situation.

We are all of us involved, both the internal microbiome and then us as the host.

So, it is important to understand that this is essential that your gut health be taken care of.

Now what happens though is if this microbiome is disrupted, let us say you are chronic use of antibiotics, it is very commonly known that then you can develop some good, called kaleida, switches overgrowth of the bad bacteria.

And that is because we are giving you medicines. That is actually killing all these good bugs that are helping you and these bad bugs, overgrowth.

And there are other things.

We are learning that, you know, microbiome has the big impact on diabetes, other metabolic syndromes, stress and anxiety, heart disease, irritable bowel cancer is, is something that we are learning a great deal about on the impact of your microbiome. And then, obviously, obesity.

The interesting thing is there is lots of studies that have been done that show how your microbiome is functioning really impact both in what foods you crave but also how you process that food. And do you store it as, as fat and gained weight, or does it continue to be Lean?

But the important thing is, is that your microbiome is something that you must be aware of if something you have to take care of, and it's something you really should try to learn more about.

So, I would hope that you would continue to, to investigate this, which is, if it is disrupted, it can cause a lot of illness.

But just as important, you want it to work and be working as its full capacity. So, you are also maximizing your wellness, and so, what you eat is essential. You gotta take care of your gut buddies and take care of yourself.

So, we are learning more and more about what we eat and the impact it is having on your health and wellness and there is a lot of things we can do to kind of control our destiny with it.

If you want to learn more, feel free to reach out to us.

Thank you.

Kelly Cox MD, FACEP

Member, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine