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The battle for bowel flora

By Dr. Davis | April 25, 2015 5 Comments

There is no longer any debate: the composition of bowel flora in the human gastrointestinal tract is a critical aspect of human health, both bowel health and overall health.

The status of bowel flora can spell the difference between having an autoimmune condition and not having an autoimmune condition, being diabetic or not being diabetic, being emotionally happy or not being happy, and developing colon cancer or not developing colon cancer. The composition of bowel flora and their ability to metabolize prebiotic fibers/resistant starches to butyrate and other fatty acids play important roles in insulin responses, nourishing and maintaining intestinal health, and intestinal permeability.

Problem: We are surrounded by factors that disrupt bowel flora, killing off beneficial species, reducing species diversity and allowing the proliferation of undesirable or pathogenic (disease-causing) species. Such disruptive factors can be in food, medications, and water. Being aware of such disruptive factors can begin your journey to regaining control over the health of your bowel flora.

Unfortunately, we cannot eliminate, only minimize, exposure to such factors. Our efforts to “seed” and cultivate healthy bowel flora can then have better chances for success.

Wheat and grain consumption–In addition to grain amylopectins that alter oral flora, the seeds of grasses contain multiple indigestible or only partially digestible proteins, such as wheat germ agglutinin and gliadin, that disrupt bowel health and digestion, thereby setting the stage for changes in bowel flora that have evolved over the 300 generations since humans made took this dietary detour.

Solution: eat no wheat or grains.

Antibiotic residues in factory farm-raised meats–Tetracycline, doxycycline, sulfonamides, and other antiobiotics, administered to livestock to accelerate growth and/or treat infections, can be encountered in most non-organic beef, chicken, and pork if the farmer allows the animal to be slaughtered before the recommended waiting period off antibiotics. (There is also the bigger problem of creating antiobiotic resistance with the agents used as growth accelerants.)

Solution: choose organic, free range meats whenever possible.

Chlorinated, fluoridated water–Despite the widespread addition of halogenated antibacterials in water, there are no clinical studies examining the bowel flora consequences of their ingestion. But, given their direct entry into the gastrointestinal tract and the potent antibacterial effects of chlorine, the more persistent chloramine, trihalomethanes that result from chlorine reactions, and fluoride, bowel flora effects are likely, particularly in the small intestine.

Solution: filter your water or drink water sources without added chloride and fluoride.

Bt toxin corn–We know that Bt toxin, a pesticide genetically engineered into corn, is absorbed by humans, such as pregnant mothers and fetuses and, if ingested, exerts damaging changes on the ileum. Bt toxin is regarded as among the more benign pesticides when applied to plants. But almost nothing is known about the effects of actual direct human ingestion of Bt toxin in the form of corn genetically modified to express Bt toxin, thereby yielding ingested pesticide in your sweet corn, grits, and taco shell. We know that Bt toxin has antimicrobial effects, as well, but unfortunately the logical and highly likely effects on the bowel flora of humans ingesting it have not been examined.

Solution: eat no corn.

Glyphosate and other herbicides/pesticides in food–While glyphosate in herbicides such as Roundup are promoted as being benign for human health, among the problems that are showing up in preliminary research are changes in bowel flora and in liver detoxification of environmental toxins. Glyphosate appears particularly lethal to beneficial bacterial species, while permitting proliferation of undesirable species. Glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals are ubiquitous, our exposure only reduced by relying on organic foods.

Solution: eat organic vegetables and fruits whenever possible, or grow them yourself.

Prescription antibiotics–An obvious connection, antibiotics have been prescribed fairly liberally for decades. Like many other facets of bowel flora issues, this practice has not been fully studied, but it is clear that bowel flora do not return to the their pre-treatment state and can have implications for a lifetime, such as increased potential for obesity and diabetes if administered to young children.

Solution: only take antibiotics when absolutely necessary but continue your probiotic/prebiotic program even while taking them.

Emulsifying agents–These common processed food ingredients (such as carboxymethylcellulose) that keep components from separating, have potential to change bowel flora and disrupt the protective mucous lining of the intestinal tract. This research remains preliminary but one with some very broad and concerning implications. Total avoidance is, however, not practical, as there are natural emulsifiers in otherwise healthy foods, such as eggs (due to lecithin) and mustard can have emulsifying properties.

Solution: minimize (absolute avoidance is tough) exposure to carboxymethylcellulose, polysorbate-80, sodium steroyl lactylate, carageenan, and others.

Prescription drugs—Acid reflux drugs and anti-inflammatory NSAIDS are among the drugs that, by altering intestinal pH, increasing intestinal permeability, and direct damage to the intestinal lining, change bowel flora. There are probably plenty of other prescription drugs that change bowel flora, but this is typically not an issue that is explored and very little data exist.

Solution: follow the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle, along with the nutritional supplements that make up for the deficiencies of modern life, such as vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium, and you will slash your need for drugs.

Artificial sweeteners–Specifically aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose modify bowel flora, helping explain why sugar-free soda drinkers are no more slender, perhaps heavier, than sugared soda drinkers.

Solution: avoid anything sweetened with aspartame, saccharine, or sucralose

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Filed Under: Wheat Belly Lifestyle Tagged With: antibiotics, bowel flora, grains, herbicides, microbiota, pesticides, wheat

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About Dr. Davis

Cardiologist Dr. William Davis is a New York
Times #1 Best Selling author and the Medical Director of the Wheat Belly Lifestyle Institute and the Undoctored Inner Circle program.

Nothing here should be construed as medical advice, but only topics for further discussion with your doctor. I practice cardiology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Comments & Feedback...

  1. court

    April 25, 2015 at 11:30 pm

    Carageenan is used in pacific foods but milks(hazelnut milk). They told me it was safe because it was the red version from natural sources. Very confusing.

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    • court

      April 25, 2015 at 11:31 pm

      Lol,I ment nut milk,not but milk,doh.

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  2. Boundless

    April 26, 2015 at 8:38 am

    Over 90% of the cells in the human body aren’t human at all. They are the microbiota, or gut biome. That’s by cell count. By weight, the biome is only 1 to 2%.

    Consensus medicine and nutrition know next to nothing about to feed the 10% of cells that are human. They know absolutely nothing about how to cultivate the 90%. And that’s the shockingly sad state of SAD (Standard American Diet). They might be excused on the gut biome, as it’s a new frontier, with much to be learned.

    Some questions on the list of issues:

    re: Wheat and grain consumption

    Unlisted risk: is there any data on the gut biome hazards posed by the routine use of bromides in fumigating grains in storage and in transport?

    re: Chlorinated, fluoridated water

    Is this also a thyroid hazard, and if so, do we need to add bromination to that list?

    re: Prescription antibiotics

    And non-prescription antibiotics: people need to stop using oral care products containing ABs (such as triclosan). This further raises the question of whether routine use of topical ABs are also a threat to gut health; perhaps a topic for another time.

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  3. Boundless

    April 28, 2015 at 10:18 am

    re: Chlorinated, fluoridated water …

    In “mistakes were made, but not by us” news yesterday, the PHS has reduced the recommended concentration for fluorides in drinking water, by 40%. Here’s a story about it on PBS:
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/04/27/402579949/feds-say-its-time-to-cut-back-on-fluoride-in-drinking-water

    Ostensibly, the reduction is due to increased exposure to fluorides from other sources. One might translate this as: your exposure to needless fluorides in everything else has risen by 40% since 1962, so even the PHS thinks you’re now getting too much.

    The thyroid hazard, quoting the paper, “called for better measurement of exposure to fluoride in epidemiological studies and for further research”.

    They dismissed other calls to lower exposure further by being skeptical of studies critical to the agenda (such as the IQ data), but not applying the same stringent criteria to studies supporting their agenda (studies confounded by the consensus diet, which adds high “noise” level to the data, making it very difficult to tease out fluoride effects).

    Gut biome effects are not even on their radar.

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    • Dr. Davis

      April 29, 2015 at 12:05 pm

      Yes, attention to bowel flora is highlighting how we often discussed the microbiome as nothing more than curiosity, often have no data whatsoever on the impact of this or that factor.

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