Dec
31
2022

Certain Probiotics Are not as Harmless as Thought

By | diet, Mortality, Nutrition

Recently a medical publication stated that certain probiotics are not as harmless as thought. Researchers presented their findings at the American College of Chest Physicians 2022 Annual Meeting. 23,533 ICU admissions to a number of hospitals in Colorado over a 5-year period were the data base for this study. There was a clear relationship between taking probiotic powder and the fact that some of these gut bacteria make their way into the blood stream. This condition has the name of bacteremia. Although bacteremia is uncommon (only 0.37%), the mortality rate for those who developed probiotic-related bacteremia was 25.6%. This is about twofold greater than the 13.5% mortality rate of controls who did not take probiotics. The risk ratio was 2.23-fold higher for ICU patients who ingested probiotics versus those who did not. What killed the patients who took probiotics were the gut bacteria that entered into their blood stream.

Discussion of “certain probiotics are not as harmless as thought”

Physicians often recommend probiotics as tools to improve the gut bacterial flora. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research in this area. There is no hard evidence that probiotics are beneficial for irritable bowel syndrome or ulcerative colitis. There is also no hard evidence that a previously deranged bowel flora would transition into a healthy bowel flora. On the other hand, we also know that fermented vegetable products like kimchi or sauerkraut also have beneficial bacteria in them that can support your bowel flora. One of the problems is the concentration of probiotic supplements. They come in 80 billion, 100 billion and higher bacteria counts per capsule. It is possible that some of these bacteria find their way through cracks in the lining of the bowel into the blood stream.

Patients outside the ICU setting

ICU patients are vulnerable and often have immune deficiencies. It may be that in regular patients outside the ICU probiotics may not be that problematical. But nobody knows for sure as there are no studies available that support this. The practice of recommending probiotics over sauerkraut and kimchi is simply based on hearsay.

Risk assessment necessary

Once probiotic bacteria are in the blood, they can freely travel through the circulatory system into the rest of the body. This is how septicemia develops. This is a dangerous condition, which does not always respond to antibiotics. It is because of this why there is such a high mortality rate as I mentioned above.

As mentioned, there is a lack of good evidence for the beneficial effects of probiotics. However, there is a risk of bacteremia in ICU patients. This warrants a risk assessment whether or not we should supplement our food intake with probiotic supplements or not. Fermented vegetable products like kimchi or sauerkraut are not as highly concentrated as probiotic capsules. Nevertheless, they are useful supplements that you can mix into salads or use as a side dish to your main meal. Until the time that more evidence is available about probiotics it is best to not take probiotics. Replace it with kimchi and sauerkraut.

Fermented foods versus probiotics

Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi can help the gut balance its bacteria. But there are other fermented foods that can help your gut: yoghurt and kefir, which is a fermented probiotic milk drink. Other fermented foods are tempeh, miso, kombucha and pickles. The good bacteria outnumber the bad bacteria when you consume fermented foods regularly. Kimchi does not only provide healthy gut digestion, but it also prevents the formation of toxins from unhealthy gut bacteria. These toxins can damage the kidneys. So, kimchi prevents kidney damage.

Sauerkraut and kimchi are fermented foods that have been consumed for hundreds of years. They provide nutrients, vitamins and minerals along with plenty of fiber and probiotic bacteria to support the gut. I consider kimchi and sauerkraut the better probiotic than probiotic pills, which likely are too concentrated.

Certain Probiotics Are not as Harmless as Thought

Certain Probiotics Are not as Harmless as Thought

Conclusion

Recently a publication reported about 23,533 ICU admissions to various hospitals in Colorado over a 5-year period. These patients took daily probiotics. There was a clear relationship between taking probiotic powder and the fact that some of these gut bacteria made their way into the blood stream. Unfortunately, there was a mortality risk of 25.6% for probiotic-related bacteremia. Controls not taking probiotics had a much lower mortality rate of 13.5%. The investigators concluded that a literature search failed to support beneficial effects of the probiotic powder. The evidence was rather weak and did not justify the risk of probiotic-bacteremia. In contrast, natural probiotics in the form of fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut have been around for centuries and are known to be safe. I see no reason why we should take a risk with probiotic pills when there are many alternative fermented foods.

Jul
04
2020

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

By | Abdominal Pain, antibiotics, diet, Gastrointestinal Disease, immune system

In general, probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems can help patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It is important to realize that about ¾ of Americans suffer from digestive problems. They develop symptoms of gas, bloating, diarrhea and stomach pains. To put it another way, about 1 in 7 Americans suffer from the condition, called chronic irritable bowel syndrome. That is to say, he underlying problem is an imbalance of gut bacteria where the bad ones outnumber the good ones. There are a number or reasons why bowel flora gets disrupted. We eat more processed foods, less fiber, and beef products from industry farms contain antibiotic residues. In feedlots for beef cattle antibiotics are fed to the animals as growth promoters. The residues in the meat kill the good bacteria in our guts and the bad ones proliferate. This causes digestive problems, but also weakens our immune system.

How probiotics work

Probiotics can restore our gut flora to a large extent. But some of the probiotic action gets lost in the stomach from the acidic milieu. A recent publication from a panel of gastroenterologists has not supported the wide use of probiotics. They came to the conclusion that probiotics have not shown enough benefit to a number of clinical conditions. The researchers mentioned Crohn’s disease, C. difficile infection, ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in particular of not responding to probiotics. But this may be because of inactivation of some of the power of the probiotics by stomach acid. In addition, by not using phages to potentiate the probiotic action probiotics may fail to permanently to improve the gut flora. I have previously discussed the importance of probiotics for the gut flora.

History and use of bacteriophages

Bacteriophages are now often just called phages. Dr. Frederick Twort, an Englishman detected phages in 1915 during World War I. Essentially a phage consists of either DNA or RNA and a protein envelope around this. Phages are very specific for certain bacterial strains. They attach to the bacteria and inject their own DNA or RNA into the bacteria. This stops the bacteria from multiplying, but makes the bacteria produce many more identical phages. Phages are useful to control the growth of problem bugs including antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the regulatory agencies were slow to approve phages despite a good safety record. Life Extension Magazine recently published a review article about this subject.

Phages helping to protect probiotic bacteria

Phages naturally play a role in keeping the gut flora stable. In this lengthy review, published in January 2020 phage actions are reviewed. It also mentions the connection between the gut flora and the immune system. The Life Extension Magazine article mentioned above describes experiments that show the action of phages. E. coli is the main bacterium in the large intestine. It is also the bacterium that can cause pneumonia, diarrhea and urinary tract infections.

Experiments with bacteria and phages in Petri dishes

According to the Life Extension Magazine article researchers did experiments with Bifidobacterium longum, one of the desirable gut bacteria. This was placed on a Petri dish along with E. coli bacteria. In a second Petri dish Bifidobacterium longum, E. coli and a phage mix were placed. After 5 hours there was hardly any growth of Bifidobacterium longum in the first petri dish, as it was crowded out by E. coli. The result in the second Petri dish was interesting: the Bifidobacterium longum colonies were 7000-times higher in number than in the other Petri dish without the phage mixture. The phages had selectively attacked the E. coli bacteria, which made room for the Bifidobacterium longum bacteria to multiply.

Animal experiments with bacteria and phages

The Life Extension Magazine review mentions animal experiments with phages next. One group of mice received B. longum and the disease-causing E. coli in their food. The other group had the same bacteria plus a mix of phages directed against E. coli. For the phage group the results within 24 hours were as follows.

  • The E. coli count in the small intestine was 10-fold lower, in the large intestine 100-fold lower and in the fecal matter 100-fold lower.
  • The phage group also had a 100-fold increase of the B. longum count in the small intestine. The large intestine also had a 100-fold increase of the B. longum count. And there was a 40-fold increase of B. longum in the fecal matter.

Control mice without the phage mix developed constipation and intestinal segments showed redness, swelling and leaks. In contrast, the phage mix group of mice showed no side effects and had improved digestive function.

Human studies using probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems

Safety tests of phage therapy were next in 2005 involving 15 volunteers. There were no side effects using two different phage concentrations to diminish E. coli. Researchers had done other safety experiments in Russia and in Poland in the past. Patients with ulcerative colitis responded with improved symptoms and improved endoscopic findings to treatment with two probiotics. They received fermented milk products (Cultura) containing live lactobacilli (La-5) and bifidobacteria (Bb-12) for 4 weeks. There were 51 patients with ulcerative colitis and 10 patients with familial adenomatous polyposis. Abdominal cramps, Involuntary defecation, leakage and the need for napkins were significantly reduced in both groups. An endoscopic score of inflammation showed a significant decreased when the baseline exam was compared to the exam after the 4-week intervention.

Literature review about phages

Here is a thorough review in a publication dated 2011, which describes research from Poland and other countries describing the action of bacteriophages, now simply called phages. It lists many human experiments and shows that phages are safe to use in humans.

Irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) presents with a pathological intestinal function, which can be quite disabling. Another name for it is “spastic colon”, because many patients complain of significant bowel spasms. Some health providers still use this alternative term. This syndrome is more common among women and there is a theory that female hormones may have something to do with the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome. Testosterone on the other hand may have a calming effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

Symptoms and treatment of IBS

Generally speaking, irritable bowel syndrome occurs first in the teens or early twenties, but then frequently tends to become chronic. The patient chiefly complains of abdominal bloating and distension. Bowel movements lead to a marked relief of pain. There is often mucous in the stools. After a bowel movement there is often a feeling that the rectum did not empty entirely, even though it did. Food intake or stress can bring on these symptoms and they always occur during the waking period. At nights most patients have no pain.

Among other measures taking probiotics alone or mixed with phages can normalize the bowel flora. In older men IBS symptoms may indicate a reduction in testosterone production. If the blood contains a low testosterone level, the physician may want to replace the missing testosterone with injections or bioidentical testosterone creams. This can improve IBS in older males.

A safe delivery system for probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems

Life Extension has developed a dual capsule that brings the inner content safely through the stomach and protects the mix of probiotics and phages from stomach acid. The capsule only opens in the small intestine where it releases its content of probiotics and phages into the gut. This allows the good bacteria like B. longum to multiply and suppresses E. coli, which would otherwise interfere with the beneficial bacteria.

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

Conclusion

About ¾ of Americans suffer from digestive problems. Many have a disbalance of the gut flora. But it is not easy to replace poor gut flora with a healthy one. Recent research showed that a combination of 7 probiotic strains with a mix of 4 E. coli fighting phages can give tremendous relief from bloating, diarrhea and abdominal cramps to patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Life Extension has developed a special dual capsule that “sneaks” the capsule through the stomach. It will only open in the small intestine. This way the content of the inner capsule with the mix of probiotics/phages stays safe from the stomach acid. At the end many more beneficial bowel-bacteria are growing in the small and large intestine. This normalizes the symptoms of the patient and leads to better digestion of food. Probiotics and phages are the new players in the gut microbiome.

Sep
14
2013

Food Processing Can Be A Danger To Your Health

By | Alzheimer’s disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Gastrointestinal Disease, Health, heart attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Infectious Disease, Nutrition, Obesity, Prevention, Stroke

This article is entitled: food processing can be a danger to your health. Food processing is found everywhere: in pizzas, hamburgers, ready to eat deep frozen dinners, and in the myriad of packages that you see in the center of the grocery store. There are aisles and aisles of ready-made food packages including potato and corn chips, power bars, low fat yoghurt, and on and on it goes. So, what are the problems with these foods? Here are the major players that you will find (sometimes not) on the food ingredient lists.

Hidden sugar

With the recommendation for the past few decades that we should use low fat yoghurt a whole industry has sprung up surrounding low fat products. If you study the labels you will see that this has been done at the expenses of adding hidden sugar content. Don’t go for the berry or other fruit yoghurt, because it is over processed, sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. This is a fast track to becoming a diabetic. Stick to plain yoghurt with 2 to 3 % fat, which has only the original milk sugar in it, but no additives. Also, in the US you ought to avoid any milk and milk products containing bovine growth hormone, which is solely there for increasing the milk farmer’s profit, but will seriously undermine your health (it blocks your growth hormone receptors).

Added sugar changes your metabolism

Ref. 1 and 3 explain in detail how the metabolism is being changed through added sugar and an overdose of starchy foods, which is the reason for the pancreas over producing insulin. This in turn causes such varied diseases like heart attacks, diabetes, inflammatory conditions like arthritis, MS, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

Cut out cookies, excessively starchy foods like potatoes, bread, pasta and rice. Within half an hour of ingesting these your system will be overrun with sugar, the breakdown product of starchy food.

Added salt

The chef adds salt often to preserve foods, to lengthen their shelf life and to stimulate your appetite. Restaurants add salt to stimulate your appetite for more liquids. As a result more beverages (alcoholic and nonalcoholic) will be ordered, which is where the profit margin is highest. High amounts of salt will not be beneficial to you, as it will raise your blood pressure and on the long-term will cause high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. When you buy organic food, there is no additional salt in it, although you get sodium chloride, which is naturally present in the vegetables and fruit. Add very little salt, if any; instead add  herbs and spices, which contain valuable trace minerals.

Food Processing Can Be A Danger To Your Health

Food Processing Can Be A Danger To Your Health

Hidden fat

Whenever you have a food that was deep fried such as potato chips, corn chips or French fries, there is the danger of exposing yourself to trans fats from polyunsaturated fatty acids. This is also true for deep fried chicken or any other ready to eat foods that have been prepared in the deep fryer. This type of oil is often reused after it is filtered and advanced glycosylation end products (AGE’s) are accumulated in it. This ages your cells including your skin much faster. AGE’s also worsen diabetes by causing more complications like heart attacks and kidney failure. For the same reason you should avoid burning meats on the BBQ or food that you cook on a stove.

Beware of hidden fat in hamburgers

Hamburgers also have a lot of hidden fat, sometimes as much as 50%. This fat enters your bloodstream and finds its way as fat deposits in your arteries. After decades of eating too many hamburgers and sausages your coronary arteries clog and you require a stent or a bypass surgery. If you do not want to become a statistic prematurely, cut out sausages, hamburgers and other processed meats replacing them with lean turkey breast, organic chicken and lean pork, venison or grass-fed lean cuts of beef or bison.

MSG and other food additives

Many foods have artificial sweeteners in them, which includes excitotoxins like MSG and aspartame. Food manufacturers add MSG to stimulate your appetite, but it has devastating effects on your brain cells on the long term. Food manufacturers disguise the name by using synonyms like yeast extract, sodium caseinate, broth stock, malt extract, natural flavors and others. Soda drinks either have added sugar, in which case your insulin response makes you want to eat more calories in a day leading to obesity and to dementia. Diet conscious people use aspartame in low-calorie drinks, but it causes insulin resistance making you gain weight. It also damages your brain.

I recommend stevia extract

I recommend the plant extract stevia, which is a sweetener that does not have the deleterious effects of aspartame. Sucralose (Splenda) was developed through research on insecticides when a student found out that it tasted sweet. Although Big Pharma has succeeded to introduce sucralose into the diet of diabetics, it is a sweetener that in my opinion is not safe. First it kills ants: a few years ago, I did an experiment where I took a package of Splenda from Starbucks and sprinkled it on Hawaiian ants.

Experiment with Splenda powder and ants in Hawaii

In the beginning they were reluctant to eat it, but after a few hours they came and took it in. One day later there were only dead ants left in the area where I sprinkled Splenda before. I refuse to eat insecticide-laced soda! Second, when you read the link about the “sweet deception about Splenda” above you find that it has reduced the growth rate of rats, caused anemia in mice, enlarged the liver and the brain of rats, shrunk ovaries of rats and caused kidney damage with calcifications in rats. We have no official human data, although millions of Splenda doses have been consumed.  Nobody has done clinical safety studies in man.

Gluten and gliadin

One of the food additives you may not think much about is gliadin, which bakers user to bind the ingredients together. Its origin is wheat, which is usually the Clearfield variety of wheat (a dwarf variety). Dr. William Davis (Ref.1) has examined the effects of wheat and wheat products on humans in detail. Suffice it to say that it is safest to avoid wheat and wheat products entirely; otherwise, you could develop bowel disease like celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease; heart disease, obesity, autoimmune diseases, but also CNS disease like Parkinson’s disease, ataxia, and dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease).

Other health problems associated with marketing and so-called “best practices” of agroindustry

Milk and milk products are not as innocent as in the past when no marketing boards were around. Animals are no longer freely roaming on green pastures. The farmer keeps them in high-density facilities and they put them on antibiotics to prevent infectious illnesses. So the rumor goes. In reality farmers have found out that antibiotics and bovine growth hormone will both increase milk production. The profit principle has been applied and as a result the consumers of milk and milk products have a change of their bowel flora from the antibiotics, which can cause heart attacks. The bovine growth hormone from milk and milk products causes breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Superbugs

Superbugs have emerged as a danger from treating beef animals with antibiotics in feeding lots leading to resistant bacterial strains that can cause human disease like flesh eating disease etc. These superbugs imported from the grocery store and meat market are what can make us sick! Eating only organic meat and organic foods are one way that we can use to protect ourselves. Organic milk or goat milk are alternatives to regular (unhealthy) milk.

Toxins in our foods

Roundup is rampantly present in agroindustry to protect crops from weeds. Traces of it are present in most regular crops. Despite claims that Roundup would be safe for the consumer, newer research has shown that it is not. Genetically modified crops are routinely sprayed with Roundup, as they are resistant to this herbicide, so I recommend to stay away from these crops as well.

Your best protection is to buy organic foods, as inspectors test these crops for Roundup contamination.

Heavy metals

Heavy metals can be another source of food toxicity. Red wine was found to contain heavy metals, which could undermine that heart healthy effect of a glass of red wine per day.

Mercury is toxic to the central nervous system. It comes from the effluent of gold mines, the smog from coal burning and volcanic activity, which finds its way into the ocean. Fish is the main source of exposure to humans as explained in this link.

Conclusion

We need to be vigilant about the food we eat. The more food processors create new items, the more ingredients they mix in. We need to ask questions about food preparation. Did the food processors mix in food additives? Are they harmless or bad for our health? Beware of sugar as this causes insulin levels to raise causing obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and cancer. Watch the addition of salt, which causes high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Avoid polyunsaturated fats, cook with olive oil instead. It’s the Mediterranean way of preventing heart attacks. No butter, no margarine, because this fat ends up in your arteries. Avoid wheat and wheat products that food manufacturers often mix into foods. Cook your own food whenever possible. Eat lots of vegetables and salads.

Keep the glycemic index of your food low

Watch the glycemic index and avoid high glycemic index foods. Sweeten with stevia, but avoid all other sweeteners. This way you avoid the insulin response discussed above.

The dietitians of the US have summarized the problems the American public faces in Ref. 2. Essentially, we need to take back the responsibility for our own food preparation and become less dependent on manufactured foods. Ref. 3 lists a good collection of wheat-free recipes.

References

1. William Davis, MD: “Wheat Belly. Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health”. HarperCollins Publishers LTD., Toronto, Canada, 2011.

2. The Profession of Dietetics at a Critical Juncture: A Report on the 2006 Environmental Scan for the American Dietetic Association; Journal of the American Dietetic Association – Volume 107, Issue 7 (July 2007)

3.  William Davis, MD: “Wheat Belly Cookbook. 150 Recipes to Help You Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health”. HarperCollins Publishers LTD., Toronto, Canada, 2012.

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