The most useful friends we have are the ones who accompany us throughout our lives…within our body. Why is it that in the last century, with the help of medical researchers, we are not suffering from smallpox, dysentery, diphtheria, cholera or scarlet fever but certain cancers, heart disease and mental diseases are on the rise? Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), migraines, depression, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s continue to rise and affect people all over the world.
What are the stats?
In the ten wealthiest Western countries, dementia-related deaths have been on the rise for the last couple of decades. More than 25% of the U.S. population suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. Depression is around 10% of the population, including 25% of women in their forties and fifties.
Commonly used antidepressant medications only treat the symptoms of depression and not the causes. So, what is the solution? Author David Perimutter addresses this in his book “Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain – for Life.” Perimutter explains that “New leading-edge science coming from the most well-respected institutions around the world is discovering that to an extraordinary degree, brain health and, on the flip side, brain diseases, are dictated by what goes on in the gut. That’s right: what’s taking place in your intestines today is determining your risk for any number of neurological conditions.” The bacteria in our gut can’t survive certain medications, like antibiotics.
It’s all about the balance
I personally stumbled upon this through a homeopathic practitioner, who shared with me that my Brain Fog was the outcome of the leaking of alcohol through my intestines. I laughed at him, he asked me to research “Leaky gut – Leaky brain.” It is then I discovered through my own research and stopped drinking alcohol that my Brain Fog was gone in the next few months.
Upon further research, I realized that around ten times more than our own cells we have some great friendly bacteria in and on our body. We have a complete ecosystem of friendly bacteria. Without them we can’t even digest, process and absorb the food and drinks we consume into our cells. They have their own ecosystem. Certain types of bacteria process specific types of food for our body to absorb and take it to our cells. This balance of colonies is extremely important. Disease-related deaths result when there is an increase in the other colony and not processing of certain kinds of food. This is extremely detrimental for the overall physical and mental health of our bodies.
The key question to ask
Knowing this, I’d like to ask is mental health related to the consumption of potent medicines or clean modern city living? Or, is it due to what medicines and clean city lives bring to us?
The answer to this question is life-style. Many healthcare professionals admit there is no permanent cure for autism, MS, dementia, depression, and anxiety. However, through research we do know there are factors that help either preventing these health challenges or even, to an extent, reversing it.
These factors are: metals in our blood (especially mercury), immunity disorder, unbalanced microbiomes in various parts of our bodies (especially bacteria in our guts and intestines), metabolic stress, nutritional deficiencies, pre-diabetes and of course an individual’s natural genetic makeup. Typically, it is not only one factor, but several of these that have a combined effect on the brain and body. The genetic susceptibility is the only predisposition that can’t be changed beyond certain limits. Other than that, all of these other factors listed can be worked on, primarily through the consumption of certain types of food, drinks and nutraceutical support.
What’s next?
In the next few blogs I plan to talk about all of the above mentioned factors, but in this blog we will focus on the microbiome and the Gut-Brain partnership. To understand this partnership it requires evidence-based knowledge of immunology, pathology, neurology and endocrinology, but for the sake of brevity I will keep this blog anecdotal.
The picture that comes to mind about our nervous system is the brain and the spinal cord, i.e. our central nervous system. But another important partnership that is often overlooked is the intestinal and enteric nervous system, which is part of the gastrointestinal tract. The central and enteric nervous systems are made with the same tissues and connected through the vagus nerve. It is the longest cranial nerve and the primary channel of information between the two nervous systems. The vagus nerve directs many bodily processes, like maintaining heart rate and controlling digestion. The population of bacteria in the gut directly affects the stimulation and function of the cells on the vagus nerve. These microbes release chemical messages that communicate with our brain, just like our neurons, through the vagus nerve. For example, the most important antidepressant chemical serotonin, also known as the “feel-good” chemical, is manufactured primarily (around 80-90% in the body) by the nerve cells in the gut as per Adam Hadhazy, in his scientific American article, “Think Twice: How the Gut’s ‘Second Brain’ Influences Mood and Well-Being.” This is precisely the reason many neurologists realize that antidepressant pills are less effective in treating depression than the right food and drinks. This relationship of our gut is not only partnering with the brain but also with other systems, like our immune cells and the insulin that our pancreas pumps. These microbiomes are the real transmitters in our body that communicate to every bodily enterprise. The trillions of bacteria have to work together to orchestrate the perfectly functional human body.
As we are faced with more health challenges, it’s important to understand how your body works and what will work for your body. As mentioned, there are many factors that play a role in the overall health of an individual and taking the time to read and figure out what works for your body will result in a healthier lifestyle and healthier you.
