Introducing Cass: Researcher, Author, and Expert on the Oral Microbiome

Hi everyone, Dr.B here of askthedentist. com.I am very excited today to be here with my friend and colleague, Cass. She has written a fantastic book which I’ll explain more about later, but I’d like to introduce her a little bit. She was a researcher studying the pharmacology of medical plants at the University of Georgia and Epitech Incorporated. Cass consults with Genova Diagnostics and Metametrics Clinical Laboratories. She researches how to address the underlying cause of disease, not just symptoms, and that’s why I love Cass – she’s functionally minded. She wrote the book about the oral microbiome, which is a root cause for many things. She has over a decade’s experience teaching physicians about integrative and functional laboratory results.I’d like to learn more about that from Cass actually, and she is CEO of Health First Consulting LLC and, of course, she’s the author of this book here, which we’ll be talking about today.

Exploring the Importance of the Oral Microbiome: An Overview

Today will be kind of a 101 on the oral microbiome and why it’s so important. Anyway, thanks for joining us, Cass, and welcome. My pleasure, so happy to be here. Let’s keep it simple.I mean, I’ve been talking about the oral microbiome for quite a while. You’ve written the book on the topic, but I think it’s easy for us to forget how many people don’t know about the oral microbiome.I mean, it’s something new. Everyone knows, well not everyone, but a lot of people know about the gut microbiome, and now we’re talking about the oral microbiome. And I’m sure the questions are already beginning to start. What’s the difference and why is it so important? And does it relate to the gut microbiome? But I think most people today that are health-oriented, they know that the gut microbiome is huge in terms of well-being, how you feel, your psychology, how you interact with people, even your personality, and of course, all the other stuff, immune system, and overall physical biological health.

The Significance of the Oral Microbiome in Maintaining Overall Health

So, anyway, let’s talk about the microbiome. It’s super important. Just like you were saying, Dr. Burhenne. People are, that’s something that we’ve all seen on TV, we’ve seen the yogurt commercials, we’ve seen the probiotic commercials. We know that these good bacteria in our gut do so many great things for us. Well, it’s the exact same for the oral, the mouth. So, we have an oral microbiome. That is a collection of something like 20 billion bacteria. There are fungi and viruses in there too, and they live in harmony, helping us have good health as long as we kind of give them the basics of what they need to stay healthy. And this oral microbiome is fundamental to healthy teeth and gums. It’s important for systemic health. It has unimaginable connections with Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular health, diabetes, joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, things you wouldn’t even expect. So there’s an oral systemic connection.

The Significance of the Oral Microbiome: Exploring the Relationship Between Bacteria and Human Health

Then there’s the immune system, which the mouth is where your body comes into contact first, or where your gut comes into contact first with the outside environment, and then everything happening in the oral microbiome in the mouth is being swallowed all day long into the gut, so it’s a major player for the whole body and for the gut and for the mouth. Let’s assume that most of us listening right now really don’t know much about any biome. Tell me about these bugs. Are these bugs human bugs? They are not us. It’s not our DNA. No, it’s not our DNA, and so I mean these are bacteria.I think everybody is familiar with bacteria, pathogenic bacteria. That’s what we’ve all heard about. You know E. coli, O15 or Salmonella, or some of these pathogenic bacteria. That’s what everyone hears about most.

Understanding the Benefits and Significance of the Oral Microbiome

Of course, you know, planet Earth is covered with bacteria. Every organism on Earth is covered with bacteria, and you know these are little single-celled organisms that actually something like 99% of them do not hurt us. They are either harmless or beneficial to us, so yeah, they cover our skin, they live in our mouths and our GI tracts and in every surface and orifice, and they have co-evolved with us and actually give us a tremendous amount of health benefits. So um, and most importantly, they protect us from pathogenic bacteria, so this oral microbiome or if we’re talking about the gut microbiome, these are good bacteria, billions of them, trillions in the gut that protect us from pathogenic bacteria, and no, they don’t share our DNA. They’re totally different, and yet we have, you know, some have called us a symbiont.

The Essential Symbiotic Relationship between Humans and Oral Microbiome

It’s like we’re, you know, it’s a symbiotic relationship, humans and bacteria, and we and it’s mostly all good things. So these are bugs that are hitching a ride, essentially. Yeah, and the two of us together, you know, us as an organism, these bugs as an organism, that essentially makes us a super organism. Yes, and this is not a war that’s going on in our mouth or our gut. This is a symbiotic, as you said, kind of relationship that without these bugs, I think we would just be dead.I mean, they produce a lot of vitamins, a lot of nutrients. They help our immune system. Yeah, our immune systems would be shot or exhausted. So that’s important to realize that these are important bugs. These are not bad bugs, even though they’re not ours, and so it’s not like we’re infected.

The Impact of Disinfecting the Oral Microbiome: Study Reveals Potential Side Effects

I think in dental school and in medical school, at least when I went to dental school, we always talked about these infections and that we had to disinfect the mouth. And so, a perfect example of how, you know, if we try and kill off these hitchhikers that are in our mouth with mouthwash, let’s say we use a very strong alcohol-based mouthwash or something that’s bactericidally based, and we use that continually. There’s a study out there, of course, that that causes bad breath. They can also elevate your blood pressure. So that’s a perfect example. What’s going on there? We aren’t being kind to these communal bugs that we’ve taken a ride with.I mean, is that a perfect example of how we need to look at the oral microbiome in a friendly sort of way, in a cohesive kind of communal way? Tell me more about that study. Absolutely.

The Role of Oral Microbiome in Regulating Blood Pressure

Well, what they learned was, I mean, you know what the study showed is that the oral microbiome helps keep our blood pressure regulated, okay? Something like 25% of the nitric oxide that we produce, so nitro.I mean, let’s not get into the biochemistry too much, but nitric oxide is a really important molecule that helps lower blood pressure, helps calm down, open up all the blood vessels, and it turns out that we can’t make it by ourselves. We need bacteria to do a critical biochemical step for us, and these oral microbes do it. They do it for us. They take the food, the vegetables we eat. Beets are a perfect example. When you chew up those vegetables and greens, and especially beets, your oral bacteria can make nitric oxide, and this helps lower your blood pressure. So what the researchers found was when you take mouthwash, which is kind of like hitting your mouth with antibiotics, killing bacteria, killing the good bacteria too, blood pressure increases.

The Role of Diet in Nurturing the Oral Microbiome for Cardiovascular Health

So this is a huge finding that the bacteria in our mouths that nobody’s paying much attention to and trying to probably kill more than not are actually having a fundamental role in our cardiovascular health. So talk about how, I mean, a lot of people are aware that the gut microbiome can be nurtured by diet. Is that the same for the oral microbiome? Oh yes, absolutely. It’s my number one favorite thing to say to do for the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome, and it is one of those nice things about diet. Maybe people are tired of hearing it over and over again, but you know, you are what you eat, and this applies to your microbiome too. You know, your good bacteria are what you eat. So that’s right.

The Importance of a Whole Foods Diet for a Healthy Oral Microbiome

Diet is just one of these transformative things, and let’s be specific right about what the diet is that builds a healthy microbiome in the gut, in the mouth, everywhere in the whole body that is going to be a whole foods diet, no packaged processed foods, no sugar, vegetables heavy and plant-based, heavy in plant foods, vegetables. You know, I always mention kind of moderate to easy on the fruits, but those are great too, and lean meats, lean organic meats. Is there anything I’m missing there? No, I mean, it’s the same story. Whatever you hear is good for the gut, for your body, for overall health. You know, I had a beet and arugula salad. In this case, that’s what I was picturing and tasting. You know, if I want to feed my oral microbiome right. You know, some olive oil, of course.I mean, it’s really that’s what people need to understand. The mouth is not this little vacuum over here that has different parameters. What’s good for your body, of course, is good for the mouth.

The Role of Oral Microbiome in Dental Problems: Imbalance of Bacterial Flora Linked to Common Dental Issues

And of course, if the mouth is off and you have inflammation in your mouth, which the majority of us do have in this nation, in this country, probably the world, then it’s all related. So that’s great advice. So it’s not complicated. Good diet. You’ll feed the oral microbiome. Yes, good diet, good microbiome.I wanted to mention something, Dr. Burhenne, when we were talking about, you know, what you know, why the oral microbiome is important. This is actually, you know, probably obvious to dentists, but I think to the average person, like me, this was not obvious before I researched the topic, which is almost all of the major dental problems are due to an imbalance of the bacteria, whether it’s a pathogen in the mouth, so whether it’s a pathogen taking over or opportunistic bacteria taking over. So, let’s just list the examples, and you might be able to add here: cavities, gingivitis, gum disease, root canal infections, bad breath.

Rapid Shifts in Oral Microbiome and the Impact of Diet

You know, all of these are pretty much by definition an imbalance of the oral microbiome. Would you agree with that? Absolutely, or dysbiosis. How quickly can the oral microbiome be helped shifted? Diet alone? Yeah, that’s a great question.I can’t tell you, like, I can’t put a number on it with a reference for you, but I would guess within one month you would see, well, within one month you would see changes, and probably within three months it might be transformative.I would agree with that, yeah, because bacteria grow extremely fast.I mean, their doubling time is just like, so even when you get hit with antibiotics, it’s not that you’re without bacteria, it’s just that they’re growing back in the wrong community. The wrong communities are growing back rapidly after antibiotic use, so anybody, I mean bacteria grow extremely fast, like nothing like anything our minds can capture. Yes, and especially in the mouth.

The Impact of Oral Microbiome Reset Program on Mouth Healing and Overall Oral Health

I mean, the mouth has a lot of areas that heal very quickly. You know, by default, they have to. We have an oral microbiome reset program on askthedentist. com, and it’s a 30-day reset, and most people will see a difference late into the third week. Assuming everything is, you know, that there’s dry mouth has been addressed, that they’re not using dental products that are killing and putting down the oral microbiome, and of course, they’re eating an oral microbiome-friendly diet, and the changes are the taste in the mouth, the viscosity of the saliva, the smell of your breath, and bleeding gums.I mean, if you have gingivitis, you can reverse gingivitis if you treat the oral microbiome properly. So, but I would agree with you, I think it’s, I think noticeably you can see it in four weeks.I typically tell patients six to eight weeks, and then, of course, if you do that for the rest of your life, I mean, the implications are profound.

The Connection Between the Gut Microbiome and Oral Microbiome Explored

There’s probably a second wave of wellness that happens at the six-month marker. So you just become a lot more resistant to anything that can happen in the mouth, and also, it helps seed the gut.I mean, to talk about the connection between the gut microbiome and the oral microbiome.I find that very fast. Yes, so, I mean, well, I mentioned earlier, some parts of it are just purely mechanical, and I feel like in medicine, we’ve detached the mouth from the gut, but I mean, this is all one continuous line. So, of course, all the microbes in the mouth are, I mean, we’re swallowing them in saliva all day long. Now, in theory, not all of them are going to reach further down in the gut alive, but many of them can, and there’s something like a 45% overlap between the gut microbiome and the oral microbiome.

Exploring the Role of Oral Microbiome in Health and Recovery

So, of course, you know, I always wonder, well, chicken or the egg, which one is setting up the stage, and I would argue that it could be the oral microbiome since it’s at the front of the line.I agree with you. We’re biased in terms of diversity of the bacteria. The mouth is second only to the gut in the biological diversity of the microbiome. So, in the mouth and the gut, we’re talking about a lot of biological diversity of bacteria, which is a measure of health. So what other tips can we talk about? One I always go to is mouth taping. If you are sleeping with your mouth open at night and you are able to tape your mouth closed, it’s safe. We have lots of information on ask the dentist about that. That’s one thing that will really speed up the recovery of your oral microbiome if that is you, and if you’re able to mouth tape.

Addressing Mouth Breathing and Improving Nasal Breathing for a Healthy Oral Microbiome

Now, if you can’t mouth tape, obviously you are a mouth breather and you cannot breathe through your nose, and that needs to be addressed as well. So it’s a great differential diagnosis for knowing that, and whether you can’t tape or not, it doesn’t matter. You still have to fix the nose if you want to fix your oral microbiome. So, in other words, in a little bit of a sound bite, if you want fewer cavities, you have to be able to breathe through your nose. What other things would you add to that? They can get on top of their breathing, make sure that their microbiome isn’t being washed over in oxygen all the time. We talked about diet. Diet’s huge. That, to me, that’s number one. We can, let’s see, well-done oral hygiene, right?I mean, I always include that in terms of brushing and flossing, and that, to me, is kind of foundational. And then it gets a little bit more tailored to what a person needs and what’s really going on with them.

Signs of Oral Dysbiosis: Identifying Imbalances in the Oral Microbiome

So, and remember, we talked when we said diet, we’re talking about an oral microbiome-building diet. How would someone know, let’s say someone’s been listening and they’re like, well, what about me?I mean, how do I know if I have an oral dysbiosis of the oral microbiome? Well, I mean, for, and you may be able to chime in here, but I mean, my thoughts would be anybody who’s had a lot of dental work, anybody who has any issues when they go to the dentist whatsoever, childhood cavities, so, I mean, again, I feel like a broken record, but cavities, bleeding gums, bad breath, gum disease, loose teeth, loss of teeth, bleeding gums, and you might want to look at your family. Did your parents struggle with these things? Do your children struggle with these things? Because it runs in families, whether it’s the genetics or the microbiome. So, kind of looking around and trying any of those issues would be a sign that, okay, the microbiome is out of balance.

The Importance of Oral Microbiome in Dental Health

It needs help.I mean, as a dentist, I would say a lot of patients don’t come see me.I know there’s a big group of people out there that will not see a dentist on a regular basis, and so if you have tooth pain, bad breath, gum disease, bleeding gums, blood in your sink when you spit out or on your floss, these are all signs. So essentially, any kind of oral disease means tonsillitis. Tonsillitis came up in our question and answer, and that’s another one, sore throat, dry mouth, bad taste in the mouth, metallic taste, ulcers, potentially ulcerations. Exactly, the mucosa, which is the oral mucosa. It’s very fragile. It’s one cell thick.I mean, that needs these bacteria to maintain it and regrow it and protect it. So I have patients that come in and they’re always asking me why, you know, my husband or my wife, my kids, they don’t get cavities, they don’t even brush and floss, and but I’m always in here getting work done, and my answer, I think now, is your oral microbiome is different.

The Connection Between Oral Microbiome and Heart Disease

That’s it. You may be brushing and flossing, but if you’re not feeding it correctly, I mean, the difference is in the basis of that. Is that there’s a difference in your microbiome. Your oral microbiome is not the same as that other person who may not be brushing and flossing as much as you are. So, that’s really the way to know.I mean, is there anything systemically that would set that would indicate that there’s something wrong with the oral microbiome?I’m curious.I don’t know. Well, I mean, heart disease. There’s a pretty strong connection.I mean, I wouldn’t, I the only time I would rule out a role of oral health in heart disease is if, you know, your checkups are just perfect. But I mean, oral pathogens are implicated in heart disease. It’s pretty, I mean, it’s not 100% evidence, you know, grade A evidence, but it’s approaching that. Yeah, I think the way I would answer that, I was just thinking about it, is that it would be comorbidities of that. In other words, you would have Alzheimer’s.

The Importance of Addressing Oral Microbiome for Disease Prevention

Well, it’s too late to work on your oral microbiome. You would have heart disease, high blood pressure. You would contract diabetes. So, the point is, is that you have to address the oral microbiome early on if you don’t want to get all these diseases that are linked to oral health. Is there anything else you want to add?I mean, this is just oral microbiome 101, right? We don’t want to get too complicated. Next time we chat, we are going to talk about the oral microbiome and your children and pregnant women, mothers, parents, breastfeeding, breastfeeding. And there’s, we’re gonna get a little bit nerdier there because there’s a lot to know there, and some of it is well, the good news is that it’s all fixable, but it can be scary as well. So, I think people, I think parents, even young couples that are thinking of having children will want to listen to that. So, but is there anything else you can add to what we’ve been talking about, oral microbiome 101 in general? What?

The Importance of Oral Microbiome Testing and Available Options

Sure, well, two other things that we didn’t talk about when we were talking about, you know, what can you do if you have dysbiosis of your oral microbiome? One thing we didn’t talk about yet, and maybe we can nerd out on it another time, would be testing. So, there is oral microbiome testing. You can find out if there are bad bugs that have basically taken over and gotten overpowered your good bugs. So, there’s testing to help really kind of figure out what’s happening. That’s helpful. For example, OralDNA Labs is one that is in the U.S. and can be used, which is your favorite test right now for the oral microbiome?I’ll link to it. Yeah, I think I would just go with OralDNA Labs.I’m interested in the one in the UK.I think it’s a better test, but since it isn’t available here yet, we’re gonna have to wait.I couldn’t even get it done myself. Oh, darn. Yeah, no, that’s a good one, and that’s, yeah, that’s in vivo laboratory. So, we will eventually, hopefully, eventually have that in the U.S.

The Role of Antimicrobials in Shifting the Oral Microbiome Safely and Effectively

The other thing I wanted to mention is that you can shift the microbiome in the mouth with antimicrobials, but those really are to be used cautiously and carefully and really under medical supervision. So, everything we talked about was more on the gentle side of gently shifting the microbiome, which really is the way to do it, right? But, um, you know, if you have a lot of acute symptoms in the mouth, um, antimicrobials might be needed. You know, carefully, short-term, and there are sprays, there are not, you know, pastes, there are different things that could be used temporarily to try to get bacterial overgrowth under control. One last question: since we’re living in the COVID era and there’s been lots of talk about pre-existing conditions, there was a study out of England.I’ve spoken to one of the researchers, Victoria. She’s wonderful, Dr. Victoria Sampson. So essentially, oral health is a risk factor for COVID, along with obesity, immune suppression, hypertension, high blood pressure.

The Oral Microbiome: A Surprising Risk Factor for COVID-19

Yeah, and I think a lot of people may be surprised by that. How, and I think it’s one of the biggest risk factors personally. However, that remains to be seen. Tie that in for us. So, oral microbiome risk factor for COVID. What? Yeah, there.I mean, why didn’t we think of this earlier? That’s what I was thinking too. Yeah, yeah.I mean, even I didn’t quite connect that before the study came out, so I really appreciate that you sent that newsletter out. But, um, so this makes perfect sense, and I mean, we do know that there’s, first of all, uh, these microbes in your mouth can be, you know, have a connection with your lung health.I mean, this microbiome in your mouth, these microbes can get into your lungs very easily. And so, if you have dysbiosis in the mouth, I mean, this is established. Although I didn’t write about it too much in my book, is that you can have more risk for pneumonia. You can have more risk for respiratory illnesses.

The Role of Secretory IgA in Boosting Oral Microbiome and Immunity

This is what’s happening in the mouth. Now, also, the something called secretory IgA is a really important immunoglobulin in the mucosal lining, all through the gut, but it’s heavy in the mouth, and that fights pathogens and destroys pathogens and allergens. And if that level is low, you are going to be more susceptible to infections. Right, so boosting that microbiome in the mouth boosts SIgA, as we call it, and that helps raise your immunity. So, I mean, those are the two things that I’m thinking about. Of course, I mean, I could go and go and go. Yeah, and we will. We’re going to be seeing, we’re going to be talking a lot more with you, Cass, and I look forward to it. But that’s SIgA. We want more of that SIgA, and we do that in a nutshell. We eat well, we keep our mouth closed, keep it moist, keep the saliva flowing, and see a dentist. And so, a lot of people have a question. Well, you know, my dentist doesn’t talk about the oral microbiome. What’s going on there?

The Need for Dentists to Embrace the Paradigm Shift in Oral Microbiome Understanding

I mean, I have mine, but I know you’ve talked to a lot of professionals, dentists, a lot of physicians. You consult with them, you help them interpret their lab results. So why is it that dentists are not doing this? Is it their education? Is it something that they don’t want to believe in?I mean, is it too complicated for them? Is it too new?I mean, you know, I’ll be interested to see what you say too, but for me, it’s a paradigm shift. This is a paradigm shift. We’re all getting on board with this, that this microbiome is an another organ of our body that is essential to health, and I don’t think what we talked about earlier, that one pathogen, one disease, one pill kind of model, it’s outdated now. It’s not what we want to be doing, right?

The Paradigm Shift in Dentistry: Recognizing the Importance of the Oral Microbiome

Many dentists have been trained in that model of just like kill the bad guys, kill the bad guys, and they forgot about 99% good guys that actually protect us from those pathogens. It’s the dental curriculum, and it is, and I’m not saying this in a bad way, but it is an indoctrination. It has to be for you to be a good clinician, same thing with physicians. And the oral microbiome is how old?I mean, late middle 2005. Right, right. Yeah, and it takes 10 to 15 years for this to sink in, and but I think finally, that paradigm shift that you’ve mentioned is happening. The tipping point, we’ve passed that, and the research is coming, and you know, COVID has really kind of enlightened us in terms of how important oral health is. So, anyway, and normal people care about their oral health, and they’re taking it to their dentist and talking about it. So, I mean, everybody is part of this paradigm shift.

Importance of Finding a Functional Dentist for Managing Your Oral Microbiome

They are, and so the reason I ask that question is, well, how do you find a dentist, and there are many of them that can have this discussion with you, test your oral microbiome, help you with it, advise you, and notice the changes that you’ve made.I mean, these are all important things, and this is foundational. In other words, you can have fillings filled and crowns done and root canals done all you want, but if you want to stop that cycle, you’re going to need to see a functional dentist. So, just to let you know, we do have a list of functional dentists. It’s a locator list. If you go to askthedentist. com and type in “find a dentist,” you will find a dentist that will be able to talk to you about all of this, and I think that’s really important.

Exploring the Importance of the Oral Microbiome: A Conversation with Dr. Cass on Dental Health

So, if you don’t want to be one of those patients that every time they come in, they have dental work done, or if you want to be that patient that comes in maybe once a year, gets a clean bill of health after a 50-minute session of cleaning, I mean, that’s what you need to address the oral microbiome. So, Cass, thank you so much for spending time with us again. It’s all in this book. If you want to read about it, it is very approachable.I do recommend it to practitioners as well. It should really be required reading in dental school or just slightly before dental school. Once you get that acceptance letter or email these days, actually, then that book should be in the mail, and it should be required reading on the first day of dental school. There should be a short quiz on the oral microbiome because it is foundational, so important. So, that would be amazing. Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Burhenne. Pleasure, and it’s so much fun talking about the oral microbiome.

Exploring the Impact of the Oral Microbiome on Parenting and Child Health

There are very few people I can talk to about the microbiome and agree on most of it. So, next time, Cass, when we get you back, we’re going to talk about, again, as I mentioned earlier, about parenting, about how the oral microbiome can affect your child. And this is going to be a lot of great advice, prenatal, postnatal, perinatal advice, and what to do if, for example, you can’t have a vaginal birth. And we’ve got all sorts of information on how to deal with that. So, again, let’s figure out how to get our kids on the right track. Exactly. Thank you again for joining us, Cass, and we’ll see you again soon. Thank you.

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Expert Discusses the Benefits of Castor Oil as a Home Remedy for Natural Therapy

“[Music], foreign [music], foreign [music], [music]. Thank you [music], foreign [music], foreign [music], [music]. You unlock this door with the key of compassion beyond. It is another world, a world of science, a world of common sense, a world of sanity. He’ll move into Dr. Osborne’s. So hey everybody, welcome to Dr. Osborne’s cell. Today, I’ve got a special guest with me. We’ve got Dr. Marisol, Queen of the Thrones, and we’re going to be talking about Castor Oil as a tool for home remedy. There are a lot of uses that it has, and so I wanted to bring on the expert of experts on the topic. By no means am I the expert, so thank you so much, Marisol, for being with me here today and sharing your knowledge. Oh, thanks, Dr. Peter.I just love talking about Castor Oil, Castor Oil packs. It’s just my jam right of the self-care practice Queen.I just feel there’s so much we can do at home, so I love that you’re open talking about this.

Discovering the Medicinal Power of Castor Oil: A Naturopath’s Journey from Skepticism to Advocacy

Now, I know your background in natural naturopathic medicine, and so you were in clinic using Castor Oil for a lot of different things. Can we just start with kind of a historical perspective of what Castor Oil is? Where does it come from, and how did we discover that it could be medicinally used for so many things? Love it, love it. So I’ve been in clinical practice for over a decade, and I just recently closed down my clinic just to move the message about Castor Oil and Castor Oil packs to the world. The reason for me, if I look back, when I first initially thought about Castor Oil, I was thinking about drinking Castor Oil. My mom used to take spoonfuls of Castor Oil weekly to just get her bowels moving. When I was first introduced to the concept of Castor Oil packs, it felt quite woo-woo and impractical. Who would put oil on an organic cotton cloth and expect a physical response?I thought it was just an old wives’ tale or a grandmother’s home recipe that did nothing and wasn’t worth trying.

Naturophath’s personal experience leads to discovery of the healing power of Castor Oil Packs

However, after a decade in the health industry in various capacities, teaching doctors, the topic kept coming up. Natural practitioners recommended Castor Oil packs, and as a patient, I wasn’t feeling better. So, I decided to go back to school, become a naturopath, and in my final year of college, I felt incredibly ill and couldn’t get out of bed.I was dealing with mold sickness, Epstein-Barr virus, PCOS, hormone dysregulation, IBS, and food sensitivities. My gut was completely destroyed, and I was scared. Despite doing all the right things, I couldn’t get better. Then, I remembered what everyone was telling me to do: Castor Oil packs.I thought it couldn’t hurt, and since I was bedridden, I had nothing to lose. The prognosis was that I wouldn’t get back to school for six to nine months, so I may as well try something. Thankfully, I have always been someone who never gives up. So, I sewed up my first Castor Oil pack with an organic cotton bag, like a trade show.

Expert Warns Against Using Plastic Wrap with Castor Oil Packs, Recommends Alternative Method for Maximum Benefits

One of the things that bothered me was the recommendation of Castor Oil packs at the time. People would do like a cloth and then wrap the body with Saran Wrap or plastic wrap. Coming from a background of homotoxicology, the study of toxins in the human system, I really thought that was a bad thing to do with oil. Using plastic around oils is not recommended. So, I wanted to do it differently if I was going to do it. That’s what I did, and when I put the pack on my body, I realized why it was being recommended by so many people.I’ll even go into the history of how far back Castor Oil packs extend. When I put it on my body, it felt like the sky opened up and the angels began to sing. For me, in that moment, when I did that Castor Oil pack, what I realized was this was the issue. Here I was trying to give myself all these wonderful supplements.

Castor Oil Packs Helped Me Relax and Maintain Parasympathetic State for Optimal Health

I was doing great testing, trying to eat great food, trying to exercise the right way, and go to the right treatments. But the issue for me was that I would only have momentary benefit because my body, because of my history, traumas as a child, had a real inability to shift and stay into the parasympathetic state. So, I was constantly in the sympathetic driven, constantly in the stress state.I would do certain things, and it would work for a bit, and then I would go back down, and I would crash. What I saw was that the Castor Oil packs, when I put them on my body, would help my body to relax and maintain.I looked at things like trying to meditate.I was unable to meditate because I would move into a panic attack zone. So, I started using Castor Oil packs during the first month of my care back to health.I used them every two hours, wearing them for an hour and then taking them off for an hour.

Personal Experience With Castor Oil Packs Inspires Creation of Easy-to-Use Therapy for Improved Energy and Digestion

I noticed that my command of my rested state was a lot stronger than initially, and I started shifting from using them every two hours to wearing them overnight. As a result, my digestion, absorption of food, and supplements improved, and my energy systems were all getting on track. However, I couldn’t get away from all the mold because I was living in a molded building and was about to finish school. So, I managed my symptoms and went back to school in three months instead of six or nine months, which was super exciting.I then went back to clinical year and tried to prescribe these packs to everybody, but there was no simple way to do it, and no one wanted to comply. This started my journey on teaching and creating easy-to-use Castor Oil packs so that people could do them.I fell in love with them because they dramatically changed my life.I even researched the history of how far back these packs were used, and that was the coolest part about it.

Castor Oil Packs: A Natural Solution for Mold Illness and Respiratory Issues

The history of the self-care treatment was absolutely fascinating. Mold is a big issue that we see clinically all the time. You know, down on the Gulf Coast, with all the hurricanes and flooding of homes, people don’t realize the dangers of mold. But you were in mold. What do you feel like Castor Oil did for you in that mold to help you recover quicker? Can you talk a little bit about that because I know my audience.A lot of them are in mold or dealing with mold, and they’re thinking, “Do I need to be using a Castor Oil pack?” Well, this is the thing: I grew up in a moldy environment as well, in Northern Ontario. It’s a little bit more damp than South America, where my background is from, because the houses in South America have walls that sweat. You can imagine how wet and damp these countries are, and so respiratory issues and other health problems are always a problem for me and many of my patients as well.

Castor Oil Packs: A Natural Therapy to Improve Sleep and Boost Detoxification

In school, I happened to be in a building that, when it was constructed, was open for multiple years and grew black mold. So, the Castor Oil packs did – which I didn’t realize – was this: because of the shift into the relaxed state, especially when I was doing them at night before going to bed, the Castor Oil pack would move through my skin and target the receptors, the dermatomes, as well as somatic visceral reflexes – the reflexes from the skin to the specific organs of the body – and it would shift and turn on my ventral vagus nerve.”So, it would move me into the parasympathetic state, and within that state, overnight time, especially my sleep, would be improved. My body would actually be able to activate the gallbladder, the liver, detox, lymphatic drainage, both physiologically through hormones and activation and parasympathetic state. But also mechanically with the pack over my liver and over my lymphatic zones, it would actually pump my lymphatic systems with my respiration.

Unlocking the Benefits of Castor Oil Packs for Colon Cleansing and Body Clock Reset

In the morning, I would have an excellent bowel movement because we finalized the pattern in the morning with the colon cleansing. It was all when I started connecting it to what I knew in naturopathic medicine, like the traditional Chinese medicine clock.I realized why because these packs have been used by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners eons ago, where they would use them on joint and implement inflammatory pains. Hippocrates would use them as a general health-promoting path, and we had Pliny the Elder, the emperor’s medicine man to the empresses of Rome, of early Rome, who would be treating fertility hormonal problems again. All types of diseases were dealt with in those times as well, but all of these doctors were using it to reset the body clock and help the body.

The Hour of the Gallbladder: How Sleep and Detoxification are Linked in Castor Oil Therapy

From between the hours of 11 and 1 am is the hour of the gallbladder, and the reason you and I, as functional practitioners, recommend for our patients to get to bed before that time is that the gallbladder is what signals sleep. The drop of the bile signals sleep and also signals like a trumpeter, signals the queen’s arrival.””It signals the detoxification process throughout the entire evening. If we go to bed at 1am, 2am, or 3am, we miss that vital command post at the time when it’s most effective. Let’s get started on our detox and cleansing. Starting with the gallbladder, which coincidentally looks like a trumpet behind the liver, it signals to dump bile during digestion when we eat a fatty meal. So, if you eat a fatty meal, like having some olive oil in your salad, you drop bile to process, digest, and absorb the fats. When it comes to the evening process of detoxification and cleansing, the skin is similar to the digestive tract and mucous membrane.

Castor Oil Compresses: Stimulating Liver Function and Promoting Detoxification

The gut is on the inside, and the skin is on the outside, but it functions much like our insides do. So, when you put fat or Castor Oil, as in a compress, on your liver area, you’re signaling the gallbladder to dump. You’re literally doing the exact same thing, as there are similar receptors on the skin over the liver. This is proven by encephalogram, where we can see dopamine areas light up the same areas that light up when you eat a fatty meal. Light up when you use fatty and oily creams on the skin. It’s like clockwork, and then between 1am and 3am, so many people who are dealing with mold or toxicity or digestive concerns wake up because that’s the hour of the liver. If you’re waking up anytime throughout the night…”Your body’s detoxification, cleansing, and drainage mechanisms are shut down and not functioning optimally. Then, you know from three to five, it’s the hour of the lungs. The heart pumps the circulatory system, but the lungs pump the lymphatic system.

Optimize Your Body’s Natural Healing Processes with Castor Oil Pack Therapy

With a Castor Oil pack over your liver, as you inhale, there’s slight pressure from the pack. You expand your lung capacity and squeeze lymphatics while exhaling. You are literally mechanically pumping your lymphatic system while laying flat, and then again, from five to seven AM, that’s the hour of the colon. We are preparing for the reason people have the best bowel movements of their day when they wake up in the morning. If their body clock and their detoxification, drainage, and cleansing mechanisms are optimized, the Castor Oil pack helps move into a relaxed state and creates the right signals to turn on all of those mechanisms of action. Sleeping throughout the night allows the body’s natural healing processes, which are the liver, detox, lymphatic drainage, and colon cleansing, to work well.

Clearing Mold Toxins with Castor Oil Therapy: A Vital Step in Natural Health Treatment

When dealing with mold, which is a constant 24/7 inhalation and triggering of the immune system, opening up the pathways allows for things to mobilize and clear out of the system instead of the patient increasing their toxic load and feeling worse over time. This helps create an environment where healing can occur until the point where the patient can move out of the environment and change things or do what they can to remediate the mold issue.”So, I just found them fantastic because, you know, our environment is our people. So many people in the natural health industry are dealing with mold toxicity. It’s an extreme problem in the natural health industry.I was just at the Nourishing Traditions and Weston Price conference, and I’m a master of physical exam and clinical practice.I would always smell my patients because there’s actually a smell that patients give off, and you do as well.

Mold Exposure a Common Issue in Natural Health Industry, Confirms Castor Oil Therapy Expert

When I was in Malden, they gave me migraine headaches, so I can pick up a mold patient really quickly. Yeah, right, same, same, exactly the same.I walked into this conference, and I actually came on the third day because I was at our event that you and I go to together.I showed up on the third day, and when I walked into the room, there were thousands of people. In this event, I walked into the room, and this is a new building, so there was no mold in the building. But I walked into this room, and sure enough, immediately, I got triggered.I could smell them all, and I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s the people in the natural health industry. So many of them here in this conference, thousands, they’re all in molded environments living with mold, and it’s all off-gassing from their pores and when they breathe and the clothing they have and their everything.’ So, I was just, you know, with a real confirming factor. That is a big problem with our patients and our people, huge.

Castor Oil Packs: A Low-Risk Solution for Detoxification with Reduced Herxheimer Reaction

Do you find that people who are in mold that are using Castor Oil? Is there a classic detoxification reaction that they have to be concerned with when using Castor Oil? Yeah, well, the most wonderful thing with Castor Oil packs is that there’s a very, very low incidence of any type of reaction. Right, like a Herxheimer reaction is very rare, very, very rare. In fact, what happens with Castor Oil packs is this.””It is probably the most important thing to do at the start of therapy, even before any cleanser detoxification, because it actually reduces the Herxheimer reaction. The Herxheimer reaction is when the body is being moved into doing detox and cleansing practices, but it is still in a sympathetic stress state. That is why things like functional medicine, chiropractic adjustments, resetting the body, and going for massages are really powerful when people are doing cleanses and detoxes, because being in a parasympathetic state reduces the negative response rate.

Understanding the Diagnostic Clues of Castor Oil Therapy for Optimal Health

What we notice is that people will respond negatively, either by hyper-responding, such as getting heart palpitations, or not responding at all, such as not finding their sleeping, pooping, or stress levels improving. These are the three common things that people claim they always experience. If they don’t get those responses or if they hyper-respond, such as experiencing nerve tinglings, which can happen with mold patients, it is also a diagnostic clue for us practitioners to note that our patients likely have problems with hydration and low mineralization. They will require higher electrolytes to move fluids from different compartments in order to move what needs to be moved out of their body. That is the wonderful thing about Castor Oil packs.

Importance of Hydration and Mineralization in Castor Oil Therapy for Effective Results

It is not a negative response, but rather an indicator of hydration status and mineralization, and what patients require to better balance themselves out.”If you don’t respond well to the geocacher pack or if you find yourself irritated by it or not doing well with it, 99% of the time it comes down to hydration and mineral requirements. We’re talking about Castor Oil packs, which are a topical application. Earlier, we talked about how in Tom and Jerry cartoons, Castor Oil was used as a punishment for kids. If you’re talking about topical use, do you recommend oral use at all, or is topical more of a preferred mechanism for it to work? Topical has become my mechanism of action because oral Castor Oil is very aggressive. Pharmacists and doctors recommend Castor Oil for severe constipation, but I’ve stayed away from it because I want to gently stimulate and support my patients and my own body.

Castor Oil Packs: A Game-Changing Tool for Reducing Stress and Inflammation.

I’ve seen that the more you do on a micro level, the greater the macro impact. As long as we can get onto a regular practice that is sustainable, easy, and pleasant, we can experience more shifting over time. Orally, Castor Oil doesn’t taste great, but topically, it feels like a warm hug. It feels so good when you wear your Castor Oil pack that people continue to want to use it because it envelops your body, calms you down, and makes you feel good. They call it a game changer.”I like to not mess with the Castor Oil pack because I feel that it’s such a great tool to move stress and inflammation out of the body. The root cause of all disease is stress and inflammation, so finding out where the stress is coming from, whether it’s mold, gluten, or a food sensitivity, is important. Once you find the stressor, you can reduce the stress while your protocols work faster, and the patient feels better faster.

Castor Oil Packs: The Training Wheels for Your Body’s Natural Healing Process.

I have had patients come from other practitioners who are taking 30, 40, or 50 supplements and don’t even know what they’re taking them for. With Castor Oil packs, I have been able to get patients down to a more sustainable supplement regime and reduce their dosages over time. Consistent use of Castor Oil packs can reduce inflammation and stress, which can improve the function of the parasympathetic nervous system and detoxification, even if the source of toxicity is unknown. It’s like training wheels for the body.”Let’s help your body work as you try to navigate and discover where else you need to make changes in your diet and lifestyle. That’s why initially, naturopathic doctors and functional medical practitioners would do cleanses before anything else. What I’ve been promoting is to start at the beginning with your patients and get it right away the minute something is wrong with the body.

Training Parasympathetic Tone with Castor Oil Packs for Natural Toxin Elimination and Healing

When the body goes into a stress state, all tissues become rigid, everything closes up, and nothing eliminates. This causes the body to hoard toxins, inflammatory factors, and immune complexes, which elevates the toxic load until it becomes unbearable and makes you so sick that you’re unable to move out of bed. That’s why the Castro pack is like training wheels for an Olympian athlete. We have to constantly train parasympathetic tone so that the body can do what it’s meant to do, which is heal and eliminate what isn’t serving it. It’s natural, like cleanliness being next to godliness. Our bodies are meant to eliminate, like when we get a cold or flu with a runny nose. The whole point of that is to move out bacteria, viruses, or allergens that are irritating our mucosal membrane. Diarrhea is also a way for the body to clear out improper food or food sensitivities. The progression of disease occurs more frequently when the body is unable to enter a relaxed state.

Castor Oil Packs: An Essential Tool for Chronic Condition Management and Parasympathetic Modulation

This is why it is imperative, especially for chronic conditions such as cancer, autoimmunity, major mold toxicity, or Lyme disease, to start using Castor Oil packs as soon as possible. The more chronic the condition, the more urgent it is to use these packs to train the system. Regular usage of Castor Oil packs is crucial because patients may only experience parasympathetic modulation during visits to a massage therapist, chiropractor, or acupuncturist. However, it is not feasible to visit these practitioners every day due to cost and lifestyle limitations. Castor Oil packs can be used every day before bedtime, which is the optimal time for the parasympathetic system to be most active for sleep and regeneration. Stress is not necessarily bad, as we need it to function, but we must also have periods of relaxation to maintain balance and rhythm in our lives.

Maximizing the Benefits of Castor Oil Packs: Incorporating Overnight Use for Optimal Health

We are rhythmic beings, and any rigidity can negatively impact our health. That’s where disease comes along, and nighttime is where it’s at, especially if people are working on a regular practice. Ideally, they should wear it overnight, and if overnight is an issue, then at least for one hour in the evening, they’ll get the benefit of wearing it. But it is much more beneficial if you wear it overnight because then you get, of course, the mechanical lymphatic movement. You get a lot more benefit, and there’s more time with the oil and the compress to hug the nervous system and maintain that parasympathetic state. So let’s talk about the people who may be listening that maybe they’re not chronically ill. Maybe they feel really well, and they’re cruising along through life. What are some things that you have found Castor Oil packs to be beneficial for, home remedy style, like constipation or whatever else it might be beneficial for?

Castor Oil Packs: Relieve Bloating, Improve Sleep, and Reduce Stress with Rapid Results

Def the big thing that people always say are three things: I poop better, I sleep better, and I stress less. So those are the main indications of Castor Oil packs. But if you want to get into the nitty-gritty, people will find benefit if they have bloating. Like, you know, 90% of the people will notice a difference in bloating after about, sometimes even as fast as three days. It’s pretty rapid. And again, just as a reminder, if people find they’re not noticing benefit, well, look at the hydration status and look at the mineralization because bloating is a perfect example. Bloating, there’s inflammation in the tissues. Where does water move to? Water is going to turn off the inflammatory fire.”That’s within the tissues, which is a big aspect of bloating on top of an unbalanced microbiome, creating more inflammation. However, there is also inflammation in the tissues and in the omentum. So, we get that feeling and sensation of bloat, causing water to move from compartment number one.

Importance of Hydration and Mineral Intake for Successful Castor Oil Therapy

You need enough water because the body will always protect the tissues. Therefore, you need to have enough water and minerals in your tissues to move it from compartment here to the lumen of the intestine.I know I went a little scientific, but I think it’s important because it’s our number one question at Queen of the Thrones. We get so many people saying how great it works, but we also have a portion of people who say it didn’t help them or they got a bit aggravated. However, it was simply because they didn’t hydrate enough.A great way to get minerals for women is through teas, which are one of our greatest sources of minerals. Just have more tea during the day.I’m sure you recommend some great multi-minerals, electrolytes, and formulas along those lines. The key is that bloating is a big issue, especially with period cramping in women. They have been told not to use castor packs for period cramping, but castor packs do work for period cramping.

Castor Oil Packs: A Natural Remedy for Menstrual Cramps, Constipation, IBS, and Pain Relief

However, you want to be careful because Castor Oil moves smooth muscle. If the first time you do a Castor Oil pack is during a really heavy, hard period, it may cause discomfort.”While you are likely to experience aggravated period flow, if you use Castor Oil packs before or at the end of your period and work up to it, your period pains and cramps are likely to disappear. Most people don’t even experience them. Constipation is a big issue that can be improved by Castor Oil packs as it helps with smooth muscle movement. Castor Oil packs are also beneficial for IBS as they improve functionality and regulate the nervous system. Whether it’s a diarrhea or constipation type of IBS, Castor Oil packs can still have a positive effect. They regulate the parasympathetic response, which can be helpful for stress-related diarrhea and toxin overload-related constipation. Joint pain, low back pain, and sciatic pain are also common reasons why people use Castor Oil packs.

Castor Oil Packs: A Foundation for Alleviating Pain and Inflammation in the Body

It works exceptionally well for any kind of pain, and it is recommended to carry them while traveling to alleviate back pain caused by carrying heavy luggage.”Well, in any situation where there is stress or inflammation on the body, you will experience movement in the right direction. When you use a Castor Oil pack, I consider it a foundation, like food, breath, work, movement, exercise, and taking supplements. Castor Oil packs are one of those foundations that I truly believe everyone in the world should be doing because it changes the game for them. If they have not been responding or getting better, they may feel like they are taking all these supplements and doing all this stuff, but they are not getting over there, they are just stuck here. What would you say? Are there any contraindications for people with certain diseases or situations where they should be cautious and not use it? Are there any medication interactions they should be aware of?

Castor Oil Packs: Safe and Effective Addition to Medications for Optimal Liver and Gallbladder Function

Castor Oil packs are completely safe with medications, and there are no issues at all with any medications. The only concern is that some people may think that gallbladder stones or gallbladder attacks would be a problem with Castor Oil packs or kidney stones because you can use the Castor Oil pack on both. However, Castor Oil relaxes the tissues and muscles and makes the spasms or pains much more tolerable, and it really helps the liver and gallbladder function more optimally. It may even reduce the risk of an initial elevation of liver enzymes or autoimmune markers that I sometimes see on clinical labs. There is an initial elevation as the body settles down, but then there is a decrease, which becomes greater over time. This can happen to people and they sometimes get scared and worried about it. However, it is just a transient elevation due to stimulus.

Castor Oil Packs: Benefits, Contraindications, and Pregnancy Precautions

Number one, the body is starting to eliminate toxins that have been stored in the tissue, and sometimes this can be damaging to liver cells. Autoimmune markers become greater for the same reason. You are starting to move things out of the body. Pregnancy is the biggest contraindication with Castor Oil packs because Castor Oil orally has been used for a long time to induce labor. Castor Oil packs can cause the movement of smooth muscle, which can potentially abort the fetus if done too early in the trimesters. Therefore, it is recommended to stay away from Castor Oil packs during pregnancy. However, doulas and midwives use Castor Oil packs to induce pregnancy, especially when labor is slow to come. The woman won’t experience strong contractions or diarrhea, which can happen with oral Castor Oil.A lot of doulas and midwives are now starting to recommend the actual packs.

Caution Advised: Doulas and Midwives Suggest Waiting Until Due Date for Castor Oil Packs During Pregnancy

On that note, for someone who is pregnant and due any day now, it is important to be cautious with Castor Oil packs. Uh, is this something that would be okay for me to do? Let’s say I’m 38 weeks along or something like that. Not to do it then. So, is there a time frame that you would say doulas and midwives have recommended for using it? Usually, it’s really towards the last weeks of pregnancy when they’re at the point where the baby is fully developed and everything is safe. Most of the time, they tend to save strategies like Castor Oil and Castor Oil packs for the due date and if they’re past their due date. That being said, if you’re followed by your practitioner, there are even some naturopathic doctors like Dr. Dixon Tom and other functional medicine doctors who use Castor Oil packs all through pregnancy with their patients who have been doing Castor Oil packs before. Because their body is tolerant to it, it’s different.

The Benefits and Importance of Practitioner-Guided Castor Oil Therapy for Improved Health and Well-being

If it’s followed by a doctor, things can be prescribed differently rather than if you’re doing it on your own. If you’re with a practitioner who’s knowledgeable about it, you can do things a little bit differently. It’s far-reaching because Castor Oil does so many different things. It works for periods, gallbladder, liver, intestinal cramping, IBS, hormone balance, and sleep problems. But again, the thing with the Castor Oil practice…”It’s not that it’s snake oil, it’s just that it works the basics. It works the basics – the parasympathetic shift – and that parasympathetic shift opens up our pathways of detox, cleansing, and drainage. Once those are open, our level of tolerability of things in our life increases, and we’re able to live a better life. That’s what I love about it. Yeah, I agree.I would get the same thing with the gluten-free diet. It’s a cure-all for everything, sometimes it is, but not always.

Clean Your Filters: The Importance of Quality Materials in Castor Oil Packs

But it’s like when you remove something that’s poisoning you, obviously you’re going to have a greater capacity to tolerate everything else. Exactly. And so to me, it’s just if you cannot clog your filters, I always just look at the body. It’s a big giant filter that helps you navigate the world. And when your filters are dirty and clogged and can’t express, then you’ve got a problem. Yeah, so if we’re oversimplifying it to the end degree, right? Yeah, but that’s exactly the truth. And see, that comes into play, like the quality of the materials that you use with the Castor Oil packs. No different than supplements, right? You look for high-quality supplements when you’re taking supplements because if you’re using low-quality supplements, what happens? Well, you’re not getting the results you’re looking for. You’re getting lots of fillers, you’re getting more stuff than you bargained for, usually unactivated nutrients. And then what happens?

Toxicologist warns of potential harm from low-quality materials used in Castor Oil Therapy

There is that your body has to metabolize. You’re actually using more of your vital force to take these low-quality tools and make it work better. And with Castor Oil packs, it’s something that we really have to open our patients’ eyes to – the quality of the material that they’re using for it.”When I first got into Castor Oil packs, one of my concerns was the way it was recommended. It was hard to find the tools, and they would suggest using any cloth with the oil. They wouldn’t specify whether the oil needed to be in glass or not, and then they would recommend plastic wrap around the body in contact with the oil on the skin. As a toxicologist, I know that toxins bioaccumulate in oils, including hormone disruptors and phthalates. These chemicals can absorb through the skin, and for chemicals to absorb, they require the same environment, which includes a microbiome, heat or light, salt, and fat.

Castor Oil Packs: Creating a Safe and Effective Environment for Detoxification

Our bodies work along these levels, and if we have that mix on our skin, it creates the perfect environment for absorption of toxicity. Many of us look at the labels on our food and search for organic and healthy options, but we need to be aware of the same factors when using Castor Oil packs. But we are not aware of the things that we are putting on our bodies, like our clothing, creams, and the different chemicals that are going into our systems. When I first started bringing Castor Oil packs to market, I was the only one who was talking about them. As a doctor and clinician, I saw patients who were highly toxic and used them for myself.I went to research and find the best materials for the packs. Castor Oil is what you are looking for with Castor Oils. You are looking for it to always be in a glass bottle. Castor Oil is the best carrier oil that exists in the world. So it’s not coconut oil or almond oil, it’s Castor Oil.

Choosing the Right Castor Oil for Effective Natural Therapy

Castor Oil has a super unique structure that absorbs anything that it comes into contact with. They actually think that might be one of the mechanisms of action of the Castor Oil packs. Possibly when it goes into your body, it’s actually binding like a binder for toxins. This isn’t confirmed quite yet, but it’s one of the thoughts of potentially the mechanism of action. So the last thing you want to do is to have Castor Oil at home in a plastic bottle. Please dispose of it because it is not doing you any good. It could potentially be retoxing your system rather than detoxing your system. That’s the first thing. You’re also looking for an oil that is hexane-free and cold-pressed, so it isn’t processed with any chemicals. There are many Castor Oils on the market that are processed with chemicals, which is the same problem. You’re looking for it to be pure and organic because you want the environment that’s been created to be as clean as possible.

Beware of Imitation Castor Oil Packs: Why Investing in Quality Matters

That’s number one with the oil, then the pack. This was something that I was aware of early on, but now I have become more and more aware because, as you know, Castor Oil has become a trend. People are asking about them more, wanting them more, and practicing them more. There have been a lot of imitation and counterfeit Castor Oil packs coming out on the market, and it’s actually been scary because they’re less expensive. They’re catering to people’s desire to get a cheaper product, but you also get what you pay for. They’re less expensive, and some are even priced close to our pack, but we price it very fairly because our materials are very expensive. We use organic, certified cotton on the inside and outside of the pack. We’re using organic cotton, which is bonded with an outside pul layer that is bonded without chemicals, making it a healthier alternative.

The Importance of Proper Disposal and Material Selection in Castor Oil Therapy Packs

It isn’t perfect because it still is plastic, but this is one of the reasons why you dispose of the pack after two months or 30 days of usage, whichever is greater. People want a barrier because when I first sold Castrol packs, I didn’t have a barrier, and no one wanted them because people wanted it to be easier and make less mess. But our products aren’t perfect. It does have that layer, but it doesn’t touch the skin. As long as whatever is touching your skin is organic cotton and thick enough, then that’s good, and you can use it for a period of time. But at one point in time, you want to discard it. The ones that are counterfeit and imitating what we’re using are using green, wash materials that sound really great, like organic bamboo. Peter had been using organic bamboo sheets.I had no idea that organic bamboo carried such a high level of toxins. It sounds great because it’s organic and sustainable, being a renewable plant.

The Truth About Organic Bamboo Fabric: Chemical Treatment and Plastic Fibers

However, bamboo is as strong as steel in construction, so the part that’s organic is growing out of the ground. In order to make it softer than cotton, which is the actual claim of organic bamboo, they have to take the bamboo and break down the cellulose and fibers using 20 to 24 acrostic chemicals. These chemicals do not completely wash off, even though they claim to wash them off. Chemicals get stuck in the matrixes of fibers, no different than they get stuck within our bodies. What they often do is sew these bamboos with other plastic fibers, making it a cheaper type of fabric. So, you have organic bamboo that has been chemically treated, plus a plastic fiber in between. Any type of plastic material, like elastane vinyl, is made with phthalates, which are one of the largest hormone disruptors that exist in our world today. We’re trying to avoid these phthalates, especially if you have hormonal problems or any kind of immune problem, because they corrupt the body and how it functions.

Optimizing Detoxification and Cleansing with Pure Castor Oil – A Must for Effective Natural Therapy

They are forever chemicals that never leave the system. Your detoxification and cleansing functions need to be optimized in order for these chemicals to come out. This is a big reason why I am now truly educated about what it means to get a really great, pure product. Our product isn’t perfect, but it is definitely the best on the market.”You know, based on science and my personal experience with patient practice, I use these packs on myself.I am very careful about what I put into my towel because it is super important. It is concerning, so make sure you purchase the right kind of products that will help you detox and not re-tox. You don’t want to create a problem while trying to fix it. First, do no harm, right? The thing is, this is very common in the industry.

Buyer Beware: Importance of Supporting Sustainable and Ethical Castor Oil Products for Optimal Health Benefits

Practitioners or doctors will come out with lines or products that are super safe and good for people, and patients can feel safe about them. However, once it hits a certain point, companies will come in who don’t really know what the pack is for or understand the mechanism of action and just try to mimic it and imitate it, but they’re imitating it in the wrong ways just to save a dollar. So, buyer beware.I truly believe we can be the cure by buying the change.””I am a firm believer that when it comes to things like our supplements and food, we can be the cure not only for ourselves but for the world by buying the right kind of products. Be the cure, buy the change, and support any companies doing it right. For example, I would much rather buy from a regenerative farmer where I know where the food is coming from and the soil quality, even if it costs me more in the long run. This supports a business that is doing it with the best intentions.

Castor Oil Expert Shares Mission-Driven Approach to Supporting Ethical Companies and Promoting Wellness

If we all did this, imagine the impact it would have on some of these bigger companies that are doing it wrong. The trade-off is illness; you’re trading convenience and cost for damage. As long as you understand that and are willing to approach it that way, just know that’s what’s happening.I believe this to be very true.I try to support companies who are doing it right and who are mission-oriented, driven, and spiritually driven to make the world a better place. My goal now is to constantly innovate because this is my passion. Castor Oil is known as the palm of price, and I feel honored to have been given the gift of becoming an expert in this field and sharing this message of this wonderful oil and these wonderful practices.”I feel so honored and enlightened on my journey. My long-term goal is to look for farms that produce Castor Oil, cotton, and everything else so that we can be the cure at the bottom level.

Investing in the Best Castor Oil and Cotton Farms for Natural Practitioners’ Toolkits: A Game Changer in Healthcare Industry.

We want to buy the farms and create the best cotton and Castor Oil because they are becoming staples in natural practitioners’ toolkits. It requires someone who cares about patients and our profession.I want doctors to have the best to give our patients. For far too long, we have allowed the medical industry to offer toxic products and drugs as a solution. We cannot use the words treat, cure, or diagnose when it comes to Castor Oil or supplements, but we can when it comes to toxic compounds that only mask symptoms. These products prey on people and make them susceptible to needing them for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, their health deteriorates, and they add more toxic compounds to treat the symptoms. In the US, we spent 4.2 trillion dollars on healthcare last year, and I expect a huge return on what I’m promising.”So, if I’m delivering healthcare, what should the return be for the consumer who’s spending that money or for the taxpayers spending that money?

The Flaws in the Health System and the Importance of Consumer Choices in Achieving Better Health Outcomes with Castor Oil Therapy

It should be improvement of health, right? It should be a reduction of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic syndrome, etc. But we don’t have that. We spend 4 trillion dollars and we see more of these diseases. And it’s because the system has many flaws, and I’m not pointing fingers at any one particular person. But ultimately, at the end of the day, the consumer, which is you, I, and everyone else listening to this, has to decide where they’re going to spend their dollar and how they’re going to spend it. Morally, does that align with their values and with the truth?

Empowering Individuals for Long-Term Health with Castor Oil Natural Therapy

Because to me, the ultimate lie is to say, ‘Take this for the rest of your life and it will fix your problem.’ That is a lie, and you can call it treatment whatever you want, but it doesn’t solve the problem. Going back to the old adage of ‘teach a man to fish,’ let’s teach people how to fish and empower them so that they can make intelligent decisions and speak with their dollars and reconnect with the community who’s all like-minded, because we all, I think, want the same things. We want people to have education and be able to make great decisions so that they can bring their gifts to the world because we all have gifts.

Unlocking the Magic of Castor Oil Therapy: Empowering Individuals to Take Control of Their Health

You have the gift of bringing casserole back because, in this area, I’m not an expert, but when I heard some of your information, I thought we’ve got to put this in front of people and get more people to understand that there are benefits to this natural agent.”But we all have gifts, and I think that if people aren’t too busy compensating for their illness or the deterioration of their health, then they will be able to let their gifts shine. And we all benefit from that 100%. Absolutely, amen to that, Peter. What I know is that I have seen too many people taking too many drugs and things that they don’t need. They give their power over to others and let them decide for us when truly our bodies and what God has given us are magical. It has all the tools inside, and all we need to do is practice them regularly, just like in ancient times.

Reviving the Power of Castor Oil Packs for Modern Self-Care and Health Maintenance

There weren’t any drugs back then because they were doing all these practices like Castor Oil packs and fishing for their fish. We need to return to the way things were but modernized. This is my attempt with the Castor Oil pack to modernize an old therapy that is proven to be a foundational health practice and a self-care tool that anyone can do safely. It can even give you indications as to what your body might need, like more water. That’s awesome! The more scientific I tried to get with my patients, the more I needed to go back to the basics. Let’s just go back to the basics because that’s going to be the bigger needle mover at the end of the day. It was, you know, like the work that you do with gluten. Absolutely, you know, like that’s what we did, and I did my clinical practice every day because, and this is the interesting thing, you’re going to love this, I didn’t tell you this, but gluten to me actually isn’t a sensitivity whatsoever.

Importance of Thorough Testing for Gluten Sensitivity in Naturopathic Practice: A Personal Experience with Rice Sensitivity.

Gluten actually feels really good in my body, but probably from genetically where I come from. But you know what the biggest sensitivity is? So, I went to go see five different doctors. No one would test me. No one would test me, and so they kept putting me on cleansing diets. This is why I think gluten testing is so powerful. They put me on cleansing diets, which would always be rice, vegetables, not seeds, all these different things back in the day. Finally, I’m in naturopathic college, and when all this stuff was happening, I was like, “Can someone please test me?I want to be tested.” I finally got tested, and gluten came no problem, but it was rice. Every single time that I would do a cleansing diet or practice, I would feel sicker than ever, and I thought something was really wrong with me. But it was just that the investigation hadn’t been thorough.I hadn’t gone to go check deep enough.

Castor Oil Empowers Individuals to Take Control of Their Health Through the Seven Fundamentals

Fortunately, I was managing things like Castro packs, all these things came to play, but it was great to get tested and then be like, “Ah, okay. Now I can actually do something with this again.”Stop eating the foods that are causing harm because we have absolute power and autonomy to take care of our bodies. We have been given this power as instruments of the Divine, and when we know how to work our bodies, life becomes much more enjoyable. However, with this power comes an absolute obligation to take care of ourselves. It is our responsibility to not give our power of choice over to any doctor. We must do our part first. We define this through the seven fundamentals: eating the right foods, having clean air and water, getting rest and sleep, being active, managing relationships and stress. If we consistently focus on these fundamentals, we can empower ourselves to take care of our bodies. When we falter, we can look to these fundamentals and make adjustments.

Take Responsibility for Your Health with the 7 Principles of Castor Oil Therapy

It is not the doctor’s responsibility to fix us, but rather our own responsibility to follow the blueprint provided by the doctor. So, anyone watching, take responsibility for your own health and well-being.”You have a responsibility to take care of yourself and not give that power to anybody else. But yeah, you know, I love your seven principles because they teach how to position cash packs underneath gastro packs, which are probably underneath that. This helps your food absorb better, reduces inflammation in your gut, improves movement, reduces inflammatory factors, and reduces the build-up of lactic acid after exercise, improving rest and sleep. We covered that a lot, and it really helps to mitigate stress in your life.

Castor Oil Packs: The Initial Win for Gut Health and Overall Wellness

Just knowing this is where I found, you know, I was like, ‘Wow, this is all the things that I’m doing with my patients on these Castor Oil packs.’ Initially, in my practice, I would have people do it right before the detox, but I realized that if I could get patients to do Castor Oil packs right at the beginning, and then start working on their gut and reducing inflammation and stress, my world would open up. The biggest bonus is that when you feel better, you do better. Giving patients and people that initial win with the Castor Oil pack is important because exercise is a lot of work before you feel the benefits, and eating well is a lot of work before you feel a benefit from supplements, water, and all those things. But if you can get that initial win and then move into it, that’s where I fell in love with the packs and made my career about it.I feel motivated, and even greater still, I’m sure I’m going to get into materials and clothing and all those types of things.

Castor Oil Advocate Dr. Marisol Teaches on Natural Health and Sustainable Fashion

I’m going to open up the conversation there too because no one is really speaking about it, and it’s probably my next journey in life.””Well, it’s definitely needed.I think we need more attention paid to the synthetics that most of us are wearing simply because there are no options. Organic cotton is an option, but it shrinks after a wash, leaving you with a half t-shirt. It’s so true that there have to be better options.I’m looking forward to you diving into that realm. Awesome, awesome, thanks. This has been so great, sharing everything you know. Where can we send people to find you?I know you have a blog and an educational platform. On Instagram, my company is @QueenoftheThrone, and my personal handle is @CellHealthWell.I’m all about advocating for people to buy the right things and sell the right way if you’re a practitioner, so I like to teach on both ends. Everything should always be a win-win-win for everybody in the world. Of course, our website is QueenoftheThrones.

The Dr. Osborne Zone Introduces the Benefits of Castor Oil Therapy for Detoxification

com, where everyone can get more information about Castro packs. We have cool quizzes you can do, and we can even provide a quiz link below so people can understand their detoxification mechanisms better and find the right pack for them. Thanks for tuning in to the Dr. Osborne Zone.”Don’t forget to share, like, and subscribe for more content like this. Also, make sure you come back next Tuesday at 6 PM Central Standard Time and Thursday at 12:30 PM for more episodes and music. Thank you.

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Boost Your Health and Well-Being: 3 Simple Ways to Increase Nitric Oxide Production

Hi, it’s Tara Bianco with BeLight Transformative Therapy. In this video, I want to give you three simple ways to increase your Nitric Oxide production.I’ll give you a brief description of what Nitric Oxide is, a list of its key benefits, and then three simple ways you can reap those benefits. Nitric Oxide is a small molecule that is produced within your body, principally within the inner lining of your blood vessels, but also in some of your nerve and immune cells. Nitric Oxide can be thought of as a signaling molecule in that it helps to organize and activate your immune system in order to respond to and neutralize invading pathogens, viruses, and free radicals. But Nitric Oxide is also closely tied to your autonomic nervous system, and its release in your body can encourage parasympathetic dominance, along with all the wonderful benefits that come from downregulating your stress response.

The Multiple Benefits of Nitric Oxide: Improved Vascular Health, Mood, Cognition, and Immune Function

You’ve already heard me mention a few, but let me give you a list so that it makes the benefits easier to remember. Nitric Oxide keeps your blood vessels flexible. It encourages vasodilation, which means the expansion of your blood vessels, which in turn leads to lower blood pressure. It’s also known to help improve mood and cognition. Some of that may be due to the increased blood flow to your brain, but it also has a tie to the signaling that happens between your neurons. Finally, it helps support a healthy immune system and defends against pathogens. It does this by helping to activate your immune response in the face of pathogenic invaders, but it also does this by helping to encourage a parasympathetic response in the body, which in turn bolsters healthy immune function.

Simple and Accessible Ways to Boost Nitric Oxide Production: Nasal Breathing and Humming

Too much Nitric Oxide can be harmful, but overwhelmingly, most of us do not produce nearly enough, especially since this molecule is known to diminish significantly with age.I want to give you three simple ways to get a quick boost of Nitric Oxide. The first two are super easy, totally free, and fully accessible. The third way uses a tool that everyone might not have, but I still think it’s super interesting and worth demonstrating for you. Number one is simply nasal breathing. The inner lining of your nasal cavity is greatly involved in the production of Nitric Oxide. So, the more often you can breathe through your nose, the more consistent the production and release of Nitric Oxide into your system will be.I’ve made several videos of short, guided breath sessions that encourage nasal breathing. If you’re interested in experiencing those, you can click right up here to access them. Number two is humming.

Humming Increases Nitric Oxide Production Up to 15 Times More Than Just Breathing Through Your Nose, According to Science-backed Ancient Wisdom

Humming forces you to breathe through your nose, which, as we already said, increases your Nitric Oxide production. But something about the sustained oscillation of air inside your nasal cavity vibrating through your facial bones and the sinuses of your skull stimulates an exponential release of Nitric Oxide. In some cases, up to 15 times more than just breathing through your nose. Normally, this humming is ancient wisdom now backed by modern science. If you’re a yogi, you’ve most likely practiced brahmari pranayama, also known as the bumblebee breath. And if you don’t know what that is, we’re going to practice it together right now.I want to say quickly that I am not an expert in Vedic studies, so I want to share with you my version of this breath technique. But if you’re curious to learn more, please feel free to consult a yogic specialist to get the really fine details. Version one is to simply inhale through your nose and then, on your exhale, hum.

Try Bumblebee Breathing for Increased Nitric Oxide Production: A Step-by-Step Guide

Your lips are closed, your exhale is slow, controlled, and extended, and you will feel vibration and pressure build up in the nasopharyngeal space. Let’s try it now together. Go ahead and find a comfortable position, making sure that your spine is aligned and your chin is parallel to the floor. We’re going to do three bumblebee breaths in a row. You can use any pitch that feels comfortable to you. In fact, I invite you to play around with the pitch as you exhale and hum to see what feels best. Here we go, three hums in a row with an inhale in between each one. [Music] Version two, which I prefer, is to do the exact same thing that we just did, but while closing off some of your other sensory organs. What I mean is we’ll do another set of three bumblebee breaths, three hums, but this time we’ll do it while also covering our eyes with our hands and blocking our ears with our thumbs.I find that this helps to focus the sound and vibration even more.

Using a Weighted Tuning Fork to Increase Nitric Oxide Production.

It’s incredibly relaxing and allows you to be more introspective with the experience and more aware of any changes you might feel in your body or mind. Traditionally, this breath technique uses a specific mudra or hand position to block off the sensory organs. But again, because I’m not an expert with that mudra, I’m going to show you my simplified hand position.I simply use my hands to cup my eyes like this, and then I use my thumbs to gently press in on the tragus of my ears. That’s the fleshy outer part of the ear. So I cup my eyes with my hands, and then I gently push in on that fleshy nub of my ear.I invite you to join me now. Let’s do another three bumblebee breaths while covering our eyes and ears.[Music] I told you that the third way to increase Nitric Oxide might not be as accessible because it requires a special tool. So here it is. This is an Auto 128 Biosonics Weighted Tuning Fork.

Weighted Tuning Fork Designed to Vibrate Bones and Muscles for Health Benefits

What makes this so special? The fact that this tuning fork is weighted (here are the weights) means that it is designed to give a much stronger vibration than a typical tuning fork. So, when I strike it, you can hear it. It does not give off a loud, audible tone, but I can feel that it has a strong, sustained vibratory quality. The autotuner Otto is named so because it is designed to vibrate the bones of the body with an osteopathic intention. The “128” written on this tuning fork tells you the frequency at which it will vibrate if you are a musician. This tuning fork will sound like a C on your instrument. The thing about Biosonic’s tuning forks is that they were designed to have a long sustain and a lot of overtones, whereas a typical tuning fork is designed to have a very pinpointed frequency and no overtones.

Auto 128 Tuning Forks: The Therapeutic Benefits of Resonating the Sphenoid Bone

A naturopathic doctor, musician, and sound energy specialist named Jambolyer created these special tuning forks with the understanding that their overtone quality offers a phenomenally therapeutic result without getting too much into the details. The Auto 128 resonates at a perfect fifth, and John’s research of almost 50 years now shows that the resonance of a perfect fifth offers the following therapeutic response: the perfect fifth vibrates your sphenoid bone, in particular, which we sometimes refer to as the keystone of the cranium. Because it articulates with all of your other cranial bones, the sphenoid bone is also famous for being the throne upon which sits your pituitary gland or your master gland.

Biosonics Auto 128 Tuner: Using Sound Resonance to Release Endogenous Opioids and Increase Nitric Oxide Production.

The resonance of the perfect fifth through the sphenoid bone causes your pituitary gland to release endogenous opioids, which act as a natural pain reliever and also offer a sense of inner calm. Those endogenous opioids are also a precursor to Nitric Oxide release in your body. We finally got back to Nitric Oxide, which we already mentioned causes a relaxation response throughout your entire body, allowing it to properly defend itself and also allowing it the space to recover and regenerate well. So, how do you use this thing?I’m going to show you seven different points on your body where you can use the Auto 128 most effectively and where it will feel really good.I’ll do a demo for you, and then before the end of this video, I just want to be sure to mention a few safety precautions and also tell you how you can purchase your own Biosonics Auto 128 tuner if that’s interesting to you. Point number one is the crown of your head.

Acupressure Points for Nitric Oxide Release and Craniosacral Health

If you’re familiar with the anatomy, I’m going to be at the intersection point between the coronal suture, which runs this way, and the sagittal suture, which runs this way. In addition to releasing Nitric Oxide, this point will also be very stimulating to the pineal or pineal gland. However you like to say it, point number two is the center of the forehead or the third eye space. This will again help to contact and have an effect on that pituitary gland, but this supposedly also enhances your sphenoid occipital movement, which will have an effect on your craniosacral rhythm and your autonomic nervous system and also the flow of your cerebral spinal fluid. Point number three is actually two points, one on your right and one on your left. This point is going to be your mastoid process, which is that bony prominence right behind your ear. So, in addition again to that Nitric Oxide release, this is also going to be really helpful for TMJ issues or tension in the jaw.

Using Tuning Forks on Specific Acupressure Points for Nitric Oxide Release

Point number four is going to be on the actual TMJ, so right on that temporomandibular joint. If you come a little bit in front of your ears and a little bit below your cheekbone, and open and close your mouth, you’ll feel that ball of the joint pop out under your fingers. So, we’re going to use the tuning fork right on that spot. Point four point five is the manubrium, or the upper portion of your sternum that you find right under the midpoint of your two clavicles. The sternal points feel amazing with the tuning fork. You really feel the resonance, and these points, in particular, offer a really nice spike in Nitric Oxide release in your body. Just a little caution here: if you have a pacemaker, please avoid using the tuning forks on your body, particularly in the chest area. Point six will be a point right in the center of your sternum, right on the body of the sternum. This, again, is going to give you that really nice spike of Nitric Oxide – and here again, please be cautious.

Final Step of Craniosacral Therapy: Tuning Fork Placement for Relaxation and Nervous System Balance

If you have a pacemaker, no tuning fork on the body. Point number seven, the final point, is going to be right in the center of the sacrum. This is that triangular bone at the base of your spine, and here again, we’re also looking to improve craniosacral rhythm, encourage a balance in the autonomic nervous system, and also encourage parasympathetic dominance in the body. We’re trying to create a stronger relaxation response. Please do not use tuning forks on the body with anyone who has osteoporosis, who is prone to fractures, or who currently has a fracture. If you have a stress fracture in your body – and you don’t know about it – the tuning fork is very quickly going to reveal that fracture to you. The vibration is going to be very painful.

Important Safety Precautions When Using Tuning Forks to Increase Nitric Oxide Production

As I already said a couple of times, please do not use tuning forks on the body if there is a pacemaker present. Most importantly, and most relevant to this video, in order to get the benefit of Nitric Oxide release. Please only use the tuning fork once or a maximum of two times in the same localized spot. Less is more. If you continue to use the tuning fork in the same spot repeatedly during the same session, you will actually cause a decrease in Nitric Oxide instead of an increase. If you’re interested in learning more about these amazing tuning forks, please visit biosonics. com. John is a great practitioner and has a lot of excellent information to offer.I hope you’ll try out these three tips for increasing your Nitric Oxide production. If you try any of them, please reach out to me and let me know how it goes. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.

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Dr. Eran Elinav’s Research Unveils the Complex Interplay Between Gut Bacteria and Human Health

“Hello everyone, welcome back to the podcast.I’m here today with Dr. Eran Elinav, an M.D./Ph.. and a professor of immunology. He is the principal investigator of two labs, one at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the other at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. His research focuses on understanding the complex interaction we have with the bacteria in our gut and how this shapes human health and disease. Dr. Elinav, along with his collaborators, discovered that people consuming identical foods have diverse metabolic responses that depend on a variety of factors, including Microbiome composition. He also discovered, along with his collaborators, that bacteria in our gut are on a circadian rhythm and how this may have metabolic consequences that depend on when we eat. In addition to what we eat, I’m very excited we’re going to talk about a lot of interesting stuff, all things microbiome, today.

Gut Microbiome‘s Circadian Rhythm Impacted by Meal Timing and Composition, Affects Health Outcomes.

I kind of want to start off, Eran, with the circadian rhythm that the gut Microbiome is on and how this can relate to meal timing and metabolic responses. We have talked quite a bit about circadian rhythms on the podcast, from the master circadian clock in our suprachiasmatic nucleus and how light resets that clock, to how there are peripheral circadian clocks in other organs, such as the liver, and how food intake is the major signal that resets that clock.A few years back, your lab discovered that the bacteria that reside in our gut have their own circadian rhythms. Can you talk, maybe just explain a little bit about this to people?”But surprisingly, we stumbled upon a major discovery in which not only the composition of diet impacts our gut microbes, but actually the timing of diet has an independent and peculiar effect on the composition and function of our gut microbes.

Gut Microbiome Exhibits Time-Dependent Interactions, Impacts Metabolic Health and Disease Development, Study Finds

Through these time-dependent interactions, our gut Microbiome can independently impact our metabolic health or our propensity to develop diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Basically, the discovery came from a laborious project in which we tried to characterize the composition and function of our gut microbes at different time points along the 24-hour cycle. So, my students sampled mice or humans every four hours of an entire 24-hour cycle, and then we were surprised to find that many of the functions of our microbes change in very consistent manners along the course of a day. Now, this was super surprising to us because if you think about it, our gut microbes live completely in the dark. So, how do they know that it’s day or night and change their activity so reproducibly at the exact same hours along a 24-hour cycle?

Microbial Activity Changes According to Circadian Rhythm, Affecting Postprandial Glucose Response

This led to three years of intense research, and the answer was that our microbes sense the timing in which we eat or do not eat and change their activity accordingly. In other words, during the day when humans are awake and eating, the microbes behave in one way, but during the night when we’re asleep, they behave in very different manners. And in mice, which are awake at night and sleep during the day, this activity is completely opposite. Dr. Patrick, I have a follow-up question for you. You know, there’s been a lot of research that has looked at how many genes in our body, particularly genes that relate to metabolism, are controlled by a circadian rhythm. So, for example, you know there have been quite a few studies now that have shown that people are.. If you give them identical foods in the morning versus the evening time and you look at postprandial glucose response, for example, you’ll see that people’s postprandial glucose response is much higher in the evening.

Circadian Rhythmicity of Gut Microbes Impacts Energy Production and Cellular Behavior, Says Study

People are more insulin sensitive in the morning as well. So, to the bacteria in our gut, is there a role that they play in energy production, perhaps in the postprandial glucose response? Dr. Elinav responds, “Yeah, that was one of the most surprising and intriguing parts of our discovery. Not only did we discover that the timing of our diet impacts the composition and function of our gut microbes throughout the course of a day, but we also found that this amazing tangle between our diet and our microbes signals to the host, to mice in some cases, and to humans. In other studies which we conducted, basically, this circadian microbial activity builds into the circadian clock, which hallmarks every cell and organ in our body. In other words, the microbial circadian rhythmicity is a critical part that participates in the disorderly diurnal behavior of our cells and our organs at different locations in our body.

Disrupting Microbiome Circadian Rhythms Can Lead to Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, Especially in Shift Workers, Study Finds.

And once we disrupt the circadian microbial activity, for example, by changing the patterns of our diet or by subjecting mice to jet lag behavior, the microbes go crazy and stop behaving in this orderly manner throughout the course of a day. And this directly reflects on how the host behaves in its normal circadian behavior. We found that once we disrupt the microbes, the host is now susceptible to developing obesity and type 2 diabetes, which is exactly the set of diseases that hallmark humans and feature a chronic disturbance in their wake-sleep patterns.”Shift workers are at a substantial risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes. For many years, we didn’t know what the missing link was that caused this risk behavior. Now, we think that at least part of the answer lies within the microbes themselves. Dr. Patrick, do you think there are any potential solutions for shift workers who are awake in the evening hours and eating food?

Time-Restricted Eating Affects Gut Microbiome, Says Dr. Elinav

We’ve learned a lot about time-restricted eating or time-restricted feeding and how that can potentially positively impact a shift worker’s metabolism if they try to limit their food, for example, into a certain time window – maybe 10 hours – rather than eating throughout the time that they’re awake at night. Do you think this also has implications for affecting the gut microbiome? Dr. Elinav responds, “Absolutely. What we’ve discovered, at least in mice, and also to some extent in humans, is that the dominant factor that determines the diurnal activity of microbes throughout the course of a day is the timing of our feeding. When we disrupt the timing of our feeding, for example, by subjecting mice to a shift to our kind of lifestyle or jet lag or even in genetically clock-deficient mice, we disrupt the microbial circadian activity.

Time-Restricted Feeding Restores Microbiome Circadian Activity and Its Effect on Metabolic and Immune Function in Disrupted Mice, but May Not Solve the Human Problem.

However, if we take all of these disrupted conditions and now time-restrict the feeding of these mice to imitate the normal eating behavior in non-disrupted mice, then we can completely restore the Microbiome circadian activity and its effect on the metabolic and immune function of the host. So, at least in mice and to some extent in humans, time-restricted feeding could restore unaltered microbial behaviors across a course of a 24-hour cycle.”You know, if you think about it, this does not really solve the human problem. Because if a doctor, physician, or nurse in a hospital has to go through a night shift and therefore has a disrupted microbiome, there is a risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes because of the disrupted microbiome. You cannot ask a nurse or physician to eat after they’ve been awake for an entire night just to restore their gut Microbiome composition and function.

Decoding Microbial Communication and Circadian Rhythm to Develop Interventions for Disease Prevention

So what we’re trying to do is decode the molecular mechanisms by which our microbes communicate with our host cells at different time points throughout the course of a day. And when we understand what goes wrong, what gets disrupted when the circadian rhythm is disturbed, maybe we could develop new interventions that would enable the microbes to correct the signal to the host and avoid these risk behaviors and susceptibility to disease, Dr. Patrick. If some of these microbes are obviously sensitive to the feeding-fasting period, so food intake versus not eating, what about the composition of the food? Does that play a role? In addition to some of these microbe species that are active on their diurnal circadian rhythm, Dr.

Diet Composition Dominates Gut Microbe Health, says Dr. Elinav and Dr. Patrick

Elinav, I think that of all the different environmental factors that affect us humans and surround us, our stress levels, the medications we take, where we live, and how we conduct our lives, the composition of the diet is probably the most important and dominant factor that impacts our gut microbes. This has been shown by us in the Personalized Nutrition Project, but it has been extensively shown by many others. And I think it is safe to say that of all the features that we and others are studying, there’s nothing more important and dominant than the composition of our diet, Dr. Patrick.”Let’s talk a little bit. Let’s dive into that a little bit, like starting with some of the macronutrients. How does the composition of our diet, including proteins or carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates versus simple carbohydrates, or even fat and the type of fat, saturated fat versus polyunsaturated fat or monounsaturated fat, affect whether we eat a plant-based diet or animal-based diet?

Unraveling the Complex Effects of Nutritional Inputs on the Microbiome

How does that affect the composition of our microbiome? That’s a great question, and to be honest, I think that our very young field is only beginning to mechanistically unravel these complex effects. There are many different types of effects by which micro and macronutrients in our diet could impact our microbes. For example, some of our nutritional inputs could serve as an energy source to microbes, and some microbes would preferentially digest some but not other components of our diets. As you may imagine, there may be a competitive advantage to some microbes over others, depending on the diet that they’re exposed to. Other impacts could relate to an even more enigmatic part of the microbiome, which is bacteria-bacteria communications.

The Impact of Diet on Gut Microbes and Host Interactions.

We increasingly know that we have trillions of bacteria in our gut, and these form ecosystems or communities in which they are very marked and poorly understood communication channels between different bacteria that determine who would survive, who would flourish, and who would not. These also, in many interesting aspects, relate to signals that are obtained from our diet.A third example of how diet composition could impact our microbes relates to the host. Many of our dietary components are sensed or absorbed by the host, which changes its behavior in response to these compounds. And the host could be regarded as a very sophisticated incubator that houses all of these microbes. By changing its behaviors or conditions, the host can respond to diet and change the relative composition and function of different microbes over others. Dr.

Microbiome Composition in African vs Western Diets and its Stability Explored in Personalized Diet Research

Patrick explains that there are people living in certain parts of Africa who eat a very similar diet every day, consisting of complex carbohydrates. In contrast, people living in the Western world, such as the United States, have diets that vary greatly from person to person, depending on processed foods versus whole foods. The stability of the Microbiome depends on the resolution at which it is viewed. For example, if viewed from a bird’s eye view of a healthy adult with a relatively stable lifestyle, the Microbiome composition over time would seem very stable. Even in industrialized nations, people are usually exposed to no more than 40 or 50 components of dietary composition in a routine lifestyle, so the variation in individual exposure to food is much less than expected.

The Microbiome‘s Stability Depends on Level of Analysis, Reveals Dr. Elinav.

Dr. Elinav agrees that this is an excellent question and explains that the stability of the Microbiome depends on the resolution at which it is viewed. And if you just look into the composition and function of the Microbiome from this perspective, you would find that it changes in a very minor manner between the age of three until we reach old age or if we develop disease or change our lifestyle. However, if you dive deeper into the microbiome, you would find that there are more interesting changes that are more subtle and characterize our healthy being. For example, there are studies in Africa looking into rainy or dry seasons, which are characterized by different exposures to different crops and foods, and you can see that there is a very consistent and reproducible change based on the changes in these seasons and what they represent.

Environmental factors impact gut microbiome and may affect physiology and disease risk.

If you look even closer, as we just discussed even in the 24-hour cycle, you would find that the Microbiome is what we call stably unstable. It is stable but oscillates throughout a 24-hour cycle in a very reproducible manner, and this relates to a healthy state. Now, when you start adding in all the perturbations and exposures that a human may experience, such as changes in diet, where we live, our health status, our stress status, and the medications we take, all of these environmental signals or cues reflect on our gut microbes in a way that may impact our physiology or risk of developing diseases, Dr. Patrick. What do you think about, for example, a vegetarian diet versus someone who follows a carnivore diet? It has become quite popular in the United States to cut out all carbohydrates and eat only meat.”Is that going to impact the Microbiome or do we know?” asked Dr.

Microbiome responds differently to diet changes in individuals, even within the same diet, according to new research.

Elinav. “Yeah, there are very elegant studies early on from the kind of birth of the field by researchers such as Jeff Gordon and Fred Bckhed, which have shown that if you abruptly change the composition of the diet from one type to another, for example, from a veggie to a carnivore diet, you very reproducibly change the composition of the microbe into one which accommodates better the new diet. This is kind of when you look at a relatively low resolution into the microbiome. However, if you look at a higher resolution – and this, I think, was one of the exciting discoveries that we came across in the Personalized Nutrition Project – you would find that even within the same diet, people react very differently when you look closely enough. So the answer is a complex one.

Study Finds Personalized Microbiome Changes in Response to Dietary Changes

In 2015, we conducted our own kind of mini-trial in which we took a group of healthy human individuals and asked them politely to eat only white rice for a week, then only a steak for another week while we extensively measured them for their microbiome. We found indeed that the Microbiome changes in a very reproducible manner, even if the starting configuration is different between people. The direction of the change is very similar when you look at the same bacteria in different people with respect to the response to the same dietary change. But when you look at a more real-life scenario, you would find that people are uniquely responding to dietary components, even if they’re exposed to the same exact diet, and this is the hallmark of the Personalized Nutrition approach,” replied Dr. Patrick. What role does Microbiome diversity play in, for example, metabolic responses to food, like postprandial glucose response, or personalized responses to diet? [Dr.

Reduced Microbial Diversity Linked to Increased Risk of Disease, Further Investigation Needed

Elinav:] Well, if you’re looking at microbial diversity or the richness of a given microbiome, there are many interesting observations that are trying to relate the loss of diversity to a propensity to develop disease. For example, if you look at indigenous populations of humans, hunter-gatherers, and so on, you would find in some studies that the diversity of the Microbiome can be tenfold higher than the average diversity that we can see and measure in the same human beings when they live in modern or industrialized societies. People have tried to link this amazing reduction in diversity to the modern risk of developing diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and even cancer and other diseases. However, the causal role implicating the richness per se of the Microbiome to these diseases still merits further investigation.

The Lifelong Impact of Microbiome Diversity on Health: Insights on Early Development and Disease Risk.

So the jury is still out there, although I must say that in many microbiome-associated diseases, we indeed see a reduction in diversity that characterizes these disease states. Whether the diversity reduction is by itself a risk factor to the development of disease or whether it just reflects the emergence of dominant disease-causing microbes is an open question that, at least to my opinion, has not been sufficiently answered yet.[Dr. Patrick:] Speaking about the diversity and how it changes, the question is how it changes throughout the lifespan. So you mentioned a few minutes ago about the Microbiome being pretty stable generally speaking after the age of about three. This is a two-part question. One would be what factors.. It seems that during early development, it is very important to shape the overall general stability of the gut Microbiome in the first three years of life.

Early Life Gut Microbiome Plays Critical Role in Shaping Adult Health, Says Expert

This can have an impact on factors such as feeding your infant and young child, including breast milk, which contains human milk oligosaccharides and other important factors for shaping the gut microbiome. Additionally, the foods you feed your child, antibiotic use, and other factors can also play a role. Do you think parents should be focused on the health of their young growing child’s gut Microbiome in those first three years of life, or exposing them to things like soil and other bacterial exposures in their environment? Dr. Elinav believes that the data we have certainly points in that direction. There is a lot of emerging data in animal models and humans that suggests the critical window of opportunity for shaping our adult configuration of the Microbiome is in the first three years of life.

Overprotection from Microbes in Early Life May Harm Microbiome Development and Impact Future Health, Warns Study

This window of opportunity is also a window of risk, as the Microbiome can be influenced by our parents, immediate surroundings, what we eat, what we’re exposed to, and the amount of environment our microbes sense. This brings a paradox because humans have been raised in the last two centuries to be afraid of microbes and infections, which were the leading cause of death in humans for millions of years. We are slowly realizing that by overly protecting our children from exposure to the microbes that surround us in every material that surrounds a young child, we may predispose them to underdeveloped microbiomes. In other words, subjecting kids to overly sterile conditions may harm them by not allowing their Microbiome to develop in a diverse enough manner. This would impact their immune system and healthy metabolism in a way that could result in health issues in the future, especially in mice, but also to some extent in humans.

Early-life exposure to antibiotics and lack of exposure to dirt and bacteria could increase risk for asthma and obesity in later life.

Studies have shown that early-life exposure to antibiotics, for example, could save lives in many cases, but the price we may pay is an increased risk for diseases such as asthma and obesity in later life. These are elegant studies performed by my friend and colleague, Brett Finlay. The proof of causality, especially in human patients, is very hard to achieve, but the majority of evidence from a decade and a half of Microbiome research certainly points to that possibility. Dr. Patrick, I remember when my son was four, and I was a new mother.I came across a study that showed early life exposure to dirt and the bacteria in it seemed to be protective against the later development of asthma and autoimmune responses. As you mentioned, our hygiene obsession in industrialized nations has a good rationale behind it.”But, you know, we all live in these buildings and not many people have any dirt, trees, or even sand.

Early exposure to environmental infection and dirt could lower risk of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, says expert

So, in some cases, you really have to make an effort to go out and expose your young child. Let them play in the dirt and get dirty. So, I definitely tried to do that as much as possible when my son was in early development. Dr. Elinav, I totally agree. This is supported, for example, by epidemiological evidence of some autoimmune or other inflammatory diseases being much less prevalent in “dirtier” countries or countries in which the prevalence of exposure to environmental infection is higher compared to “cleaner” countries, which suffer from a marked increase in these autoimmune or other inflammatory diseases. There are very elegant studies by my colleague, Martin Blaser, from NYU, showing in mice and, I think, also in humans, that this overly distinct depletion or changes in the development of the Microbiome could impact the susceptibility to develop diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease in later life.

Exploring the Potential Role of Genetics in Microbiome Composition and Transgenerational Effects

So, this link certainly has been suggested and, to some extent, has been demonstrated to probably occur.A formal proof of causality in diseases, which may take many years and even decades to develop, is very hard to achieve in humans. So, there too, I think that the supporting evidence is very robust, but in order to get a completely finalized proof, it will take more time. Dr. Patrick, the question I have is, like, is there… we’re talking a lot about the environment and how that’s shaping the gut microbiome, and it just sort of came to my mind like, you know, there are some women, for example, that have IBD or irritable disease for whatever reason, whatever the causal factor is.”Is there a genetic component or something that can still influence the Microbiome composition? Let’s say that a woman has a child. Is there some sort of transgenerational effect on the microbiome?

The Influence of Maternal Microbiome on Neonatal Microbiome Acquisition Examined in Microbiome Insights Study

What if this woman had a lot of exposure to antibiotics combined with poor meal timing or other environmental factors that could have influenced her microbiome? Does the mother’s Microbiome affect the child’s microbiome? Is there any evidence of that, Dr. Elinav? Well, I would divide my answer into two parts. First of all, every child is born sterile to the best of our knowledge and acquires his or her Microbiome during the neonatal period from his or her immediate surroundings, which mainly consist of their parents, who are very close to them. So, in addition to many other environmental factors, it seems that a child’s Microbiome is very much influenced by that of their parents, especially their mother. In cases where the mother takes more care of the baby than the father, the question you’re raising is a fundamental one in the Microbiome field. If I were to rephrase it, I would ask whether the Microbiome is shaped by our genes or by our environment.

Study Finds Environment Plays Larger Role in Shaping Human Microbiome than Genetics.

This remained an open question for many years until we conducted an ambitious study in which we took 500 healthy individuals and comprehensively profiled their microbiome. We assessed as much as we could many of the environmental factors that influenced them, including their dietary habits, and so on. We also sequenced their genes, so we characterized their human genome. For the first time, we could directly compare the influence of our human genome and our environment on the composition and function of the Microbiome and also compare the potential contribution.”Of the Microbiome and the human genes on different human traits, and the answer was an intriguing answer. What we found was that most of the effect shaping our Microbiome comes from the environment. Only 1.% of the variability in the human Microbiome could be explained by differences in human genes, while close to 99% of the variability in the human Microbiome was explainable by factors coming from people’s environment.

Study shows environment plays major role in microbiome impact on human health, with some human traits only affected by genes.

That doesn’t mean that the 1.9% of genes is not exceedingly important. There could be some genes there that are exceedingly and dramatically important in generating a healthy microbiome. It just tells you that the weight of the effect is mainly coming from the environment, and this is very encouraging because the environment, in contrast to our human genes, could be modulated. So if a Microbiome changes for any reason to a configuration which favors disease, we could hopefully find ways by which we modify the environment that is sent by the Microbiome in order to reverse it back into a healthy configuration. The second revelation from this study was equally interesting to us, and what we found was that some human traits were only impacted by human genes. So, for example, if you look at human height, it is not affected by the microbes whatsoever. So almost all of the explanations for differences in human height came from human genes and not from the microbes.

Microbiome and Genetics Independently Affect Metabolic Health and Cholesterol Levels, Says Dr. Patrick

However, when we looked at a number of metabolic parameters, such as weight, waste to heat ratio, cholesterol levels, and many other metabolic features, we found that the microbes, the microbiome, and the human genes had independent and very substantial effects on these traits. In other words, the Microbiome in the human body or the human genomic system participates in the determination of our healthy metabolism and our risk of developing metabolic disease. Dr. Patrick, you brought up a question…I wanted to circle back to dietary composition because you’ve done so much work on that, but what you just said brought up a question in my mind about cholesterol and the Microbiome having an independent effect on it. We do know that genetics play a role as well. Have you or any of your colleagues looked into the mechanism for that, or probably multiple mechanisms?I’m kind of thinking along the lines of inflammation and how, when there’s an inflammatory response, cholesterol is produced.

Gut Microbiome Modulates Healthy Cholesterol and Fatty Acid Metabolism, Finds Personalized Nutrition Project

It’s a well-known thing that you should always have at least an “N of two” when you’re getting your cholesterol levels measured because if you have some sort of stressful event or something that’s causing inflammation or if you’re sick, you can have high cholesterol levels. That’s not necessarily indicative of what your cholesterol levels are. Dr. Elinav, you’re absolutely right, and I can tell you that we and several other groups have reproducibly found that different aspects of healthy cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism in humans and mice are modulated by the gut microbiome. For example, in the Personalized Nutrition Project and in interventional trials that were followed as part of this project, we found that modification of personalized nutritional recommendations could lead to an improvement in HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol.

Microbiome can predict individual triglyceride levels, says UK trial

Another group from the UK conducted a very ambitious follow-up trial, similar to the Personalized Nutrition Project, which we started with called the PREDICT Trial. In this trial, they could show something very exciting, which is that the Microbiome and the host could be used to predict a person’s triglyceride levels. In other words, not only did they associate the microbes with features of fatty acid metabolism or triglycerides, which are one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but they could also use data from the Microbiome to predict a person’s levels of triglycerides. This provides stronger proof of the possible causal association between the two features, according to Dr. Patrick.

Microbiome Variability Could Explain Conflicting Results in Studies on Saturated Fat and Cardiovascular Disease Risk, Says Dr. Elinav

Do you think that some of the confounding factors in the many studies that have been done, for example, on saturated fat, and the role of saturated fat in cardiovascular disease risk or in certain biomarkers that indicate cardiovascular disease risk, like high cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, for example, have conflicting data where it’s not always bad, but it does seem to be bad? So, is there a Microbiome component like the way your body responds to saturated fat? Dr. Elinav thinks that the specific answer is “I don’t know,” but the conceptual answer is that in every study that they look at or conduct, they find that inter-individual differences in the Microbiome could play a role and potentially explain variabilities between studies in their outcomes, even if they seemingly do the same thing and reach different conclusions. Dr.

Microbiome’s Role in Individual Responses to Nutrients and Artificial Sweeteners Explored by Experts.

Elinav can give endless examples, such as their own studies on non-nutritive sweeteners or artificial sweeteners, which suggested that the Microbiome is a major player that modifies the response of some people but not of others to some of the nutrients. If you look at the body of evidence suggesting that nutrients adversely or favorably impact the human body, you know it’s all over the place, and the results are very conflicting with each other. People spend their careers fighting with each other, while some of the explanations could lie within inter-individual variabilities.”In their physiology, including ones that are related to their microbiome, Dr. Patrick mentioned artificial sweeteners. Maybe we can dive into that for a moment because it’s fascinating work that your lab has done on the metabolic effects of artificial sweeteners, as well as food additives and emulsifiers. You mentioned that people had diverse responses to artificial sweeteners. What were those responses, Dr.

Artificial sweeteners disturb glycemic response through the microbiome, says study.

Elinav?””The study that we’ve published mainly focused on mice and studied several artificial sweeteners, but we mainly focused on saccharin as a very marked example. What we found was a counterintuitive disturbance in their glycemic responses when they were exposed to saccharin, driven by their microbiome. For example, when mice were exposed to saccharin at different doses and their Microbiome was transferred into germ-free mice that never saw saccharin, they developed the same disturbances in blood sugar control as those of the donor mice. This was a very complex study that provided a proof of concept that some dietary compounds that we use, mainly modern dietary compounds that we regard as inert because they don’t seem to directly impact our body, may impact our body in peculiar ways indirectly through their effects on the microbiome. This proof of concept study was followed by many other studies.

Studies suggest emulsifiers and other food ingredients may impact gut microbes, highlighting need for caution in assessing safety.

You mentioned emulsifiers, and there were studies on food colorants and other ingredients which may have an effect on some people based on their impacts mediated on the gut microbes. This needs to be taken into consideration when assessing the safety and inertness of such substances, Dr. Patrick.”I think I recall reading that the levels of dietary emulsifiers were even, perhaps at levels that were relevant for humans. Dr. Elinav responded, “Yeah, in some of the mouse studies, the levels were higher than in humans, but in many of them, the levels were very similar to the ones observed in humans. It’s difficult to directly compare mice to humans. The metabolism is not exactly the same, and we need to say that out loud. The concepts in many cases are very similar, and the effects are very similar, but mice are not humans. But at least they suggest that such impacts could be happening. The burden of proof is on us before we recommend a substance.

Preliminary Human Studies Needed to Understand Effects of Artificial Sweeteners and Emulsifiers on Microbes and Body, Says Expert.

We need to make sure that we understand what it does to our microbes and what it does to our human body to make sure that we do no harm. So not every mouse-based study could be directly translated into humans, but many of them provide an intelligent hypothesis that needs to be ruled in or ruled out in human studies that follow.” Dr. Patrick responded, “Well said. Were there any preliminary human studies that were followed up with the artificial sweeteners and/or the emulsifiers?” Dr. Elinav replied, “So with the artificial sweeteners as part of the original study, we published a very preliminary small-scale study suggesting that personalized responses to saccharine in humans do occur and could even be transferred upon Microbiome transfers from humans into germ-free mice. This was a very small preliminary study that we and others are trying to follow up on in larger controlled trials.

Emerging evidence suggests potential personalized effects of sweeteners on microbiome and metabolism, says expert.

That, I hope, would teach us about potential personalized effects and how we can anticipate them or predict them in ways that would keep the use safe while letting people enjoy sweetness. But I would certainly say that there is emerging evidence that..”The findings that we came up with are not only reproducible in multiple animal models, starting from flies and all the way to mice, rats, and piglets, but they may also be relevant to humans. The jury’s still out there. This is a very young field, and we’ll wait for more results. [Dr. Patrick]: “Oh, if I can give you a suggestion, I think most people nowadays don’t consume saccharin like they did 20-30 years ago. The big ones that I know a lot of people would be interested in knowing whether or not they’re affecting the Microbiome in a good or bad way, or if they’re neutral in their effects on metabolisms as well, would be some of the non-nutritive sweeteners that are from natural sources like stevia or the Monkfruit extract.

The Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acids on Gut Microbiome Explored in Research on Personalized Response to Diet, Obesity, and Leaky Gut

So if you guys are interested in looking at that, I think you know that many people would be very interested in that data as well because a lot of people consume it.” [Dr. Elinav]: “I can only say we’re on it. Stay tuned. [Dr. Patrick]: “Great. So we’ve been talking quite a bit about obesity throughout the podcast and how the gut Microbiome is affecting obesity. And I want to dive into that a little bit more. But before we get there, I just have one question.I’m not sure it directly relates to your research.I know you’ve written about it in really well-done review articles that you’ve published. The effects of omega-3 fatty acids on the gut are super interesting.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Found to Positively Impact Gut Microbiome, Implications for Personalized Health

I’m a big omega-3 fan, and I remember reading a couple of studies that were quite surprising to me about how omega-3 was affecting the gut Microbiome in what I thought to be a positive way.” [Dr. Elinav]: “Yes, omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have a positive effect on the gut microbiome, and we are continuing to study this area.””Elinav, you know that omega-3 is a classical example of a compound that has been suggested to be very beneficial to the human body in different ways, but it also has surprising impacts on the gut microbiome. This needs to be taken into account when assessing the overall effect of these compounds on different people because everyone has a different microbiome. The effects on different people’s microbiomes could determine the different outcomes upon consumption of omega-3.

Individuals React Differently to Food Components and Additives, says Personalized Nutrition Study

These are not my studies, but I can tell you that in every single example of a food component or food additive that we’ve tested (and we’ve tested thousands of them in over 100,000 people that underwent our Personalized Nutrition pipeline or project), we found that people distinctly react to foods or food components or food additives, even if they’re exposed to the same exact amounts of the same exact component. This includes fatty acids such as the ones you’ve been asking about. We don’t know exactly what the complex array of causes are that determine this individualized responsiveness to different foods. This is a huge black box that we bypassed computationally, but it seems to involve factors related to the host, factors related to our lifestyle, and factors related to our microbiome. Dr.

Study Reveals Potential Mechanisms Behind Yo-Yo Obesity in the Context of Microbiome Insights.

Patrick, it definitely seems like understanding more of these environmental factors, including the Microbiome composition, is extremely important, especially for illuminating the conflicting data out there. You’ll find all these studies where one thing is good for you, but then another study says it’s bad for you.””It’s definitely a lot more complicated than we originally thought, but I want to kind of shift gears and talk a little bit more about obesity because you had a very recent study that was very interesting and looked at some of the potential mechanisms behind why people who are starting out overweight or obese go on some sort of dietary program to lose weight, yet they tend to gain that weight back quite easily. So can we talk a little bit about some of that recent work, Dr. Elinav?” “Absolutely. This phenomenon, which is medically called recurrent obesity but is more widely known as yo-yo obesity, characterizes up to 80% of all obese individuals worldwide.

Recurrent or Yo-Yo Obesity: The Common Pattern of Weight Gain and Dieting Attempts with Little Known Drivers, says Expert.

So this is the most common pattern of obesity that we know of, yet we have very little clue on what drives it. The pattern is, as you suggested, a person who gains weight for any reason and then goes on one of many different diets that are out there. Most diets are very efficient in reducing weight in the short term because they involve caloric restriction. So that person diets on one of these many diets, loses weight back to his or her original low body weight. But then, within 12 months of successfully dieting, 80% of people go on to redevelop obesity or regain all the weight that they’ve lost and even regain a little bit more than they originally had. And from cycle to cycle of obesity and dieting attempts, we seem to get more and more obese until we become formally obese. This is exactly the pattern of recurrent or yo-yo obesity.

Study on Recurrent Yo-Yo Obesity Phenomenon in Mice Offers Insights into Molecular Mechanism of Obesity

Now, if we’re trying to scrape the surface in understanding the molecular mechanism that drives obesity, we know very little about this driving, about this recurrent yo-yo obesity phenomenon. So we tried to study it in mice and we developed three or four different animal models that recapitulate this recurrent obesity behavior in humans. In other words, for example, we took mice and put them on an obesogenic diet rich in fats and sugar. They gained weight. Then we switched them to a low-fat diet and they dieted back to their original weight. We then exposed them to a second, third, and fourth cycle and observed the same phenomenon that is observed in humans.

Persistent Gut Microbiome Disruption Contributes to Weight Regain After Dieting, Study Finds.

From cycle to cycle, the mice seemed to regain more and more weight, even when they started from the same weight as never-obese mice and were exposed to the same diet. Is this the exaggerated weight regain that characterizes yo-yo obesity in humans? To study and understand the drivers of these behaviors, we looked into tens of different parameters that can be measured in mice after they successfully dieted. We searched for something in the mice following a successful diet that could store a bad memory of their previous obesity. It seems that everything normalized after a successful diet, including the hormonal, endocrine, and metabolic features that we could measure, except for the gut microbiome. When we measured the gut microbiome, it seemed to be persistently disturbed, as though the mice were never dieted. It had a configuration that was very similar to the one observed during obesity.

Yo-yo dieting alters microbiome’s ability to regulate weight and metabolism, leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes

When we transferred this microbiome, which never normalized after a successful diet, into germ-free mice, these mice developed obesity and type 2 diabetes. This post-dieting Microbiome stored a metabolic memory of past obesity that predisposed the mice to an exaggerated weight regain the next time they were exposed to it. An obesogenic diet. When we probed even deeper into this memory microbiome, we found that it induced the trait of exaggerated weight regain by altering its ability to degrade dietary compounds called isoflavonoids. Normally, isoflavonoids from the diet are degraded by the Microbiome to compounds that swim into adipose cells and signal them to release more heat and store less fat when we are exposed to an obesogenic diet. But when these compounds were missing after a successful diet, the adipose cells were no longer given the signal to release heat and not store fat, and now they were storing more fat and making the mice more obese compared to non-yo-yo obesity mice.

Microbiome’s metabolism of flavonoids linked to weight regain tendency in obesity, study finds.

In other words, the Microbiome was driving this exaggerated weight regain tendency by changing its metabolism of distinct molecules coming from our diet. Dr. Patrick remembered correctly that some of these distinct molecules were flavonoids like apigenin, which is high in parsley, and naringenin from grapefruit. So, there are bacteria that are degrading or metabolizing these flavonoids. The obesity is causing a decrease in these types of bacteria. Exactly, Dr. Elinav confirmed.

Obesity and Dieting May Impact Microbiome‘s Ability to Generate Flavonoids, Leading to Weight Regain.

The bacteria normally generate these flavonoids from more complex flavonoids by chemically modifying them. Once obesity and then successful dieting occur, the change in the Microbiome that is so persistent means that the microbes are no longer able to generate these compounds, and this leads to a cascade of events that results in more fat accumulation per given diet, leading to exaggerated weight regain.”So, do you think that consuming foods high in some of these compounds, like grapefruit, and/or supplementation would help with that if your Microbiome is not producing those compounds but you need them? Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly, Dr. Elinav? It sounds like the Microbiome is not producing the compounds if the microbes that are degrading these compounds are expanded in these obesogenic conditions, and therefore there’s more degradation of these compounds and less of them that survive this microbial activity.

Intervening in the Microbiome Could Treat Obesity and Prevent Weight Regain, According to Research in Mice.

Indeed, at least in mice, what we’ve found is that if we intervened by resupplementing mice with these now missing metabolites, we could avoid or treat exaggerated weight regain and obesity that it induces.A different approach that we’ve used in mice and seems to be highly effective is the replacement of this bad memory Microbiome with a Microbiome that had the ability to generate the right compound. By fecal Microbiome transplantation, at least in mice, we could reset the mice to not develop this yo-yo obesity phenotype. So it seems that by understanding the molecular mechanism that drives obesity in this distinct state, one could intervene through the Microbiome or, at least in mice, and reverse this tendency and therefore treat or ameliorate obesity, at least in this context, Dr. Patrick. Do you have any plans to look in humans, for example, that you could give them a supplement with these flavonoids to see how that affects the metabolic outcome, Dr. Elinav?

Research on Microbiome‘s Impact on Recurrent Obesity in Humans Shows Promise in Ongoing Trials

It’s not only plans, it’s an ongoing trial that is aimed at utilizing the many pipelines that we’ve developed in mice to measure these effects and to measure the possible Microbiome impacts on recurrent obesity and to study them in humans.”Of course, humans are a much more complex animal than mice, but many of the concepts seem to hold also in humans. So, we’re studying this and trying to understand what happens in humans, which are the bugs and the molecules that they secrete, which may contribute to this bad microbial memory that we have identified in mice and how we can intervene in humans through different approaches, including metabolites and supplementation that would reverse or treat recurrent obesity in humans. Dr. Patrick, that’s very exciting.I eagerly wait for the data. You mentioned that people that are..

Caloric Restriction May Benefit Gut Microbiome and Drive Weight Loss, Says Dr. Elinav

you know, can successfully lose weight by a variety of diets, and a lot of them have to do with caloric restriction, in other words, they’re just eating less food and how you know that helps with weight loss. What effect does caloric restriction have on the gut microbiome? Dr. Elinav, I think that it’s very interesting to note that just like the findings that we and many others after us have noted with respect to recurrent obesity and its effect on the Microbiome and downstream metabolism, equally interesting studies that recently came out suggest that caloric restriction may have a peculiar effect on the Microbiome that may drive its beneficial effects. There are many studies suggesting that periodic food restrictions, such as those 16:8 diets and many others, may have beneficial metabolic effects. Although the jury is still out there, I need to be careful. Some studies have been showing less impressive results. But at least some of the effects may be mediated by the microbiome.

The Microbiome Metabolome: A Biochemical Factory with Potential Effects on Health and Disease.

Certainly, we see in these studies that caloric restriction or periodic avoidance of food has distinct changes on the microbiome, and these may contribute to different metabolic outcomes that are measured in these studies. Dr. Patrick, I want to talk a little bit about… You know, we just touched on it a moment ago, about our gut Microbiome being these little factories that are turning out different compounds and metabolites.I think it’s referred to by you and others as the Microbiome metabolome. Dr. Elinav: Yep. Dr. Patrick: Can you talk about maybe just a couple of the compounds that they’re producing that could be beneficial in some cases, as we’ve talked about, but also compounds that may not be so beneficial? Dr. Elinav: Absolutely. And there is increasing evidence suggesting that one may regard our microbiome, among many other descriptions, as a biochemical factory that generates or modulates many thousands of small molecules that could be potentially bioactive and are called metabolites.

Microbial Metabolites: Small Molecules with Big Impact on Distant Organs and Health

And what we find super interesting about these metabolites or these small molecules is A) that they have, in many cases, a peculiar chemistry that we’ve not recognized before, and B) that these molecules, in contrast to the microbes that make them, can influx or swim into our sterile body, where they can reach very distant cells and organs and impact them. And by understanding the unique physiology or the unique effect of these small microbial secreted molecules, one can start to understand how some microbiomes that live in one place could impact health and disease processes that occur miles away, for example, gut microbes impacting the brain or the joints. And many of these effects could be mediated by these small bioactive molecules.

Gut Microbes May Influence Half of the Small Molecule Repertoire in the Blood, Reveals Study

In fact, we and others have measured the small molecule repertoire in peripheral blood of both animals and humans, and it seems that around 50% of all small molecules that are found within our peripheral blood may originate in one way or another or be modulated in one way or another by our gut microbes.”It’s a big thing: it’s a big story because it means that our microbes could be regarded as a neglected organ that has very distant effects that were not previously anticipated,” said Dr. Patrick. “I think most people who listen or watch our podcast are familiar with some of the beneficial metabolites that are produced, like these short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate or propionate acetate, and their effects on modulating the immune system. And I think there’s been overwhelming evidence at this point that there’s a role for these short-chain fatty acids in playing a signaling molecule role where they affect T regulatory cell activity and/or production.

Gut Microbiome and Intestinal Permeability: A Key Factor in Personalized Response to Diet and Disease Risk.

For example, what about the flip side of that? What about compounds that are produced by bacteria in our gut that are not beneficial and what role, for example, like leaky gut or what would be more technically intestinal permeability, some compounds that can be produced or this concept of metabolic endotoxemia? For example, what role could that play in even cardiovascular disease risk?” asked Dr. Elinav. “That’s a great question, and it leads to an observation made by a clinician decades before we knew there was a Microbiome or appreciated the potential magnitude of the effect of the Microbiome on human health. This relates to the ability of the gut to withstand the huge antigenic and foreign molecule burden that it sees every day in the form of food, and the trillions of microbes that are in the intestinal lumen are separated from our sterile self by only a single layer of intestinal epithelial cells.

The Impact of Leaky Gut on Human Health: Insights from Microbiome Research

Throughout evolution, our human body has developed amazing means to provide this protection from invasion of foreign molecules into our sterile body while preserving the ability of our intestines to absorb food or food molecules, which is totally critical for our existence.”What we have observed for many decades is that the healthy leakiness of the gut, which enables us to absorb food, is disrupted in some disease contexts, leading to an altered ability to withstand or separate foreign objects or molecules that now penetrate into the human body and ignite the immune system in ways that lead to disease. This leaky gut or altered gut permeability, as we call it, seems to constitute a common denominator or factor found in many disease states, such as heart disease, many cancers, and many autoimmune disorders. For many years, we did not understand the precise mechanisms by which this leaky gut forms and what the consequences of this leakiness are on human health.

Gut Microbes and the Importance of Maintaining a Healthy Gut Barrier

In the last decade, there has been a lot of research focused on trying to understand this important concept. What we have contributed is an understanding that diverse molecules secreted by gut microbes are critically important in determining the normal state of leakiness that allows us to absorb food on the one hand, but blocks all the foreign molecules that we don’t want in our body from entering the body under normal circumstances. Once the conditions arise that lead to the disruption of this normal barrier function, which leads to leakiness, then this leakiness results in the influx of molecules from the gut into the sterile human body, which contributes to disease states or exacerbation of disease in different contexts. So it’s just another important mechanism by which our microbes could lead to increased disease susceptibility or to new severe symptoms in a previously present disease based on their effects on the gut barrier. Dr.

Understanding the Complex Factors Contributing to Leaky Gut and Disrupted Gut Barrier.

Patrick, what do you think is the main contributing factor to disrupting the balance of the gut barrier, or this “leaky gut,” such as environmental factors? Your immune cells are now having contact with the bacteria in the gut, and it’s causing this immune response. What are a couple of the top main environmental factors that cause that, [Dr. Elinav]? It’s a great question, and we need to understand that this barrier, which we refer to, is also a very complex structure. It is composed of the lining cells of the gut, the epithelial cells of the gut, which are characterized by very specific connections to one another that are tightly regulated. These tightly regulated connections between the cells could be influenced by molecules that come from food. They could be influenced by molecules that come from the microbes. And once this regulation is disrupted, then leaky gut occurs.A second part of the barrier is the mucus layer that overlays these lining epithelial cells.

Environmental Factors and Gut Microbes Impact Protective Mucus Layer and Permeability, Reveals Microbiome Study

The mucus layer in the gut is exceedingly important in separating the bacteria and the food molecules from physically attaching to our human side to the epithelial cells. And it is increasingly shown that the generation and the preservation of this protective mucus is also regulated by a number of bacterial and environmental factors, such as medications, toxins, and food components. So the more we learn, the more we realize that these protection, barrier-related processes are intriguingly impacted by the environment and by relays of the environment on our gut microbes, [Dr. Patrick]. Do you think the food composition component is something that is more individualized? There’s an individualized response to that that could affect the gut permeability, or is there some general phenomenon like too much sugar in combination with saturated fat, for example, you call this an obesogenic diet, [Dr. Elinav]?

Genetic Susceptibility and Food Components: Understanding the Complexity of Disease

I think that the more we look, the more personalized. We see that the effects are such that, just to give you an example, one food component may impact some humans but not others. Let’s talk about celiac disease, which is mediated by proteins present in certain crops. For example, gliadin is the major protein that is part of bread, making our dough sticky and our bread tasty. In individuals who suffer from a genetic susceptibility to develop immune reactivity to this protein, a cascade of immune reactions occurs, leading to, among many other changes, a leaky bowel or gut, which contributes to the disease state in celiac patients. This is a nice example of host genetic risk factors combining with food components that at-risk individuals are exposed to, leading to a clinical manifestation of disease, in this case, celiac. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and many complex diseases, such as heart disease and some cancers, are multi-factorial diseases whose causes are unknown.

Microbiome Interventions Targeting Prebiotics and Fermentable Fibers: Exploring the Links to Chronic Diseases

They may be caused by a combination of genetic risk factors from within the body and food and microbial components that contribute to a second hit, leading to the clinical manifestations of these diseases. One could argue that the lack of dietary composition or a type of food could also play a role, and a big one there would be fermentable fiber. There are prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics, which most people are familiar with. Can you describe the differences between these, Dr. Elinav? Some of the different interventions heavily researched in the young Microbiome field aim to modulate the Microbiome and its interactions with the human body to generate new treatments. Prebiotic interventions are classically defined as food-related interventions composed of dietary fibers aimed at making our Microbiome healthier. However, the meaning of “healthier” is unclear.

Exploring Personalized Nutrition through Prebiotic, Probiotic, and Postbiotic Interventions: A Review of Current Research

Our personalized nutrition approach is a more data-driven development of this prebiotic intervention.A probiotic intervention involves supplementing exogenous microbes that we hope will be welcomed by our indigenous Microbiome and impact our body favorably.A postbiotic therapy utilizes small bioactive molecules, such as metabolites, to supplement missing metabolites in some disease contexts. This bypasses the entire Microbiome or microbial ecosystem, which is difficult to intervene in due to inter-individual variability. Other interventions being developed and explored include fecal Microbiome transplantation, phage therapy, and eradication therapies. Before discussing phage therapy, Dr. Patrick asks about research from Dr.

Indigenous Microbiome Plays Major Role in Response to Probiotics, Study Finds

Elinav’s lab that suggests probiotics may work for some individuals but not others and asks about the mechanism behind this phenomenon. We find that the indigenous microbiome, in its distinct inter-individual uniqueness, plays major, unappreciated roles in determining many of our microbiome-dependent health outcomes. So, when we studied probiotics or 11 different types of commonly prescribed over-the-counter probiotics, and studied them in mice and humans, we conducted probably the most invasive Microbiome study performed to date. We found that in around half of the people we tested, when they took these probiotic bacteria and supplemented them into their diet, the probiotics were met with a very hostile indigenous microbiome, which did not let them colonize our gut even temporarily. Therefore, in these cases, when people took these probiotics, they ended up very rapidly from one end to the other.

Probiotic impact on gut responsiveness depends on colonization ability, says study

By sampling these volunteer participants through invasive colonoscopy and endoscopy at different stages of probiotic exposure, we found that in individuals that consumed probiotics but were not able to colonize these exogenous bugs along their gut, we could see absolutely no impact on the gut responsiveness to these exogenous probiotics. However, in the other half of the individuals, the Microbiome was much more welcoming, and when they were eating the probiotics, the probiotics were at least temporarily able to colonize along their guts. In these individuals, we saw that these exogenous microbes indeed had quite significant impacts on our measurements of human responsiveness, at least in the gut.

Understanding the Complex Interaction between Indigenous Microbiome and Exogenous Probiotics for Personalized Response to Diet, Obesity, and Leaky Gut.

That tells you that even the colonization of exogenous probiotics is highly individualized and is mainly determined by the composition and function of the indigenous Microbiome and how it welcomes these new microbes that come into the neighborhood [Dr. Patrick].I have about three follow-up questions for you on this. So, for one, is it known what exactly is regulating this? Whether or not there’s residential space or space made available for supplemental probiotics to colonize? Is it just the types of bacteria that are a little bit friendlier to say, “Yeah, you can come stay here”? Or are there other factors that also regulate whether or not there’s any residential space available? [Dr Elinav], this is a great question. The more we answer, the more we realize that this interaction between different microbes, whether they’re members of the indigenous Microbiome or members of the Microbiome meeting these exogenous probiotics, is highly complex and poorly understood.

Microbial Interactions in the Gut: A Complex and Diverse Ecosystem

It is probably composed of many different ways of interaction. Sometimes the microbes just compete for space or food. If one microbe is more adept at eating the food at the expense of another, then it would expand and not let the other thrive. Another potential set of interactions is mediated by the secretion of what we call antimicrobial peptides, which are these types of natural antibiotics that some microbes are able to secrete, which inhibit others. So, you can see that some of these interactions are very hostile, while others could be very supportive in providing nutrients by one microbe that would enable the survival of another. It’s a whole big zoo of interaction that we’re just trying and starting to unravel.

Antibiotics and Probiotics: Disrupting the Microbiome and Inhibiting its Return.

But the one take-home message which we’ve already discovered – and this was quite shocking to us – was that both in the human and the mouse setting, when you disrupt the indigenous Microbiome by the administration of antibiotics, for example, you kind of empty out the neighborhood and now you give probiotics. Now the neighborhood is empty and the probiotics are no longer met by resistance, so they can now colonize the gut. However, the result of this colonization is not always positive. What we have discovered is that in people who were given probiotics together with antibiotic administration (which is a very common practice around the world, especially in the U.S.), the probiotics were able to colonize the gut because the indigenous Microbiome was at least temporarily eradicated by the antibiotics. But now these probiotics are very persistently inhibiting the return of the indigenous Microbiome after antibiotic exposure is no longer present.

Probiotics and Antibiotics: Potential Benefits and Long-Term Consequences for Gut Microbiome

In other words, by giving probiotics together with antibiotics, we may be protecting some individuals from the adverse effects associated with antibiotic treatment. However, the price we may pay is the creation of a chronic disturbance in the composition of our gut microbiome, with the probiotics very aggressively refusing to leave the neighborhood and colonizing the once diverse gut, not letting the Microbiome repopulate and recolonize. This could have long-term effects in predisposing individuals to chronic diseases, which we and many others are researching. This tells you that we are not against probiotics; we are just very much in favor of studying them in a comprehensive manner to make sure that we understand their functions, their personalized effects, and their possible long-term influences, whether they are good or bad on human subjects. Dr.

Combining antibiotics and probiotics could potentially benefit diseased microbiomes, says Dr. Elinav

Patrick, I guess there are a lot of questions that also arise from that data, including the indigenous Microbiome composition before antibiotic treatment, for example. Perhaps it was not a good one. So then you wonder, “Well, maybe I don’t want some of those bacteria to be present.””You know, inhabiting my gut again. Or perhaps you know the timing and quantity of the probiotics. So maybe you shouldn’t just be overwhelming your gut constantly with them, but maybe you know if you want to seed a little bit of some of these bifidobacteria or some bacteria that may be beneficial. Is that something that you guys are looking into or have thought about, [Dr. Elinav]?I totally agree.I don’t think that these results per se tell you anything definitive. That is a take-home message. It tells you that we need to be careful until we know better. But it also tells you that potentially, if you could combine antibiotics with probiotics in a diseased Microbiome setting, then they could potentially be beneficial.

Precision Probiotics: Tailoring Microbiome Interventions for Personalized Health Benefits

You know, you could get rid of a disease-associated or a disease-causative microbiome, replace them with probiotics to keep the niche occupied, and then maybe you’ll do something good to diseases. All I’m saying is that we need research and evidence.I oppose careless manufacturing of probiotics just because they don’t impact the taste of food. And other people’s research suggests that what we call precision probiotics or next-generation probiotics may be bugs. They don’t smell the best, maybe they’re not the tastiest bugs, but they may be most effective in colonizing the human gut and positively impacting our health in different contexts. We just need to understand how they do it to tailor them to the individual and to make sure that they’re safe [, Dr. Patrick]. Two questions to follow up on that. Do you think that one, the amount or the dose of probiotic or the colony forming units, for example, can play a role in whether or not a probiotic can colonize, if there’s any at all?

Study Finds Probiotics Must Colonize Gut to Provide Therapeutic Benefits, According to Researcher Dr. Elinav

And two, do you think that these probiotics.. Perhaps they’re not colonizing, but they’re exerting a therapeutic effect as they flow through the gut, particularly in people with diseases like colitis or inflammatory bowel disease. Obviously, that would be a disease that originates in the gut. Do you think there would be a benefit, even if the probiotic is not colonizing, but just the fact that it’s flowing through and helping a person with some gut issues? Dr. Elinav: That’s a good question. And I can tell you that our strains, at least in the strains that we’ve tested, we’ve given the volunteer participants quite heavy doses of these probiotics. So when they were not colonizing… they were not colonizing. And we are the first to study this colonization pattern, not in stool, which is where most of the previous studies have looked into in probiotics.

Stool Sampling Inadequate for Assessing Probiotic Colonization, Requires Gut Sampling.

We found that stool is very problematic in assessing colonization because even in people who do not colonize at all with probiotics, they end up accumulating in stool because that’s the natural way where they go. So you need to really sample inside the gut in order to understand whether a person colonizes or not. So in the people who did not colonize, even when we gave them high doses of these preparations, we could observe absolutely no colonization, even when assessing it by very sensitive means along the gastrointestinal tract. Now, whether they could have some effect when they’re flying through the lumen all the way to where they end up putatively, maybe, but in my view, very unlikely. You’re talking about bugs that secrete molecules that are kind of dispersed in an ocean. You know they’re diluted in an ocean. And to think that they would be physiologically effective when in the middle of the ocean, you know, is at least theoretically possible.

Exogenous Bacteria May Exert Therapeutic Effects Along Mucosal Surfaces, Says Dr. Patrick

But I think the burden of proof is on those who claim it. My hunch or assumption is that most of the effect that one would see from exogenous bacteria, for example, from precision probiotics, would be expected to exert along the mucosal surfaces where the microbes meet the epithelial cells. This is where they adhere to the epithelial cells or to the mucus layer, and where the distances are such that secreted molecules could reach their destination without having to pass through this giant ocean. Dr. Patrick agrees, saying that there may be a role for dose in the bacteria having any sort of therapeutic effect. He personally has read quite a few studies on a certain very high-dose probiotic over 400 billion bacteria. Many of the studies at the time the bacteria was from a brand called VSL #3. The formulation was done again and it was called Visbiome.

Probiotics should be approached with caution and evidence-based medicine, says expert.

But many of the publications, including clinical studies and animal studies, have shown benefits, for example, on colitis or irritable bowel syndrome, with taking either 400 or 800 colony-forming units, which is much higher than doses found in something on the shelf of a grocery store. However, Dr. Elinav respectfully disagrees, stating that the level of evidence is not close to one which would make him recommend these for IBD or for any disease. He points out that not a single probiotic preparation to date has been approved as a medical intervention by the FDA or by the European counterparts of the FDA. He is not against probiotics, but he thinks that just like any human medical intervention, they should be approached with caution. Probiotics should be assessed by evidence-based medicine and proven to be effective in certain preparations, certain doses, and certain medical conditions, and not assumed to be effective before we test and prove them. [Dr.

Bacteriophages: The Intriguing Viruses That Could Help Combat Obesity and Leaky Gut

Patrick], well, you mentioned something earlier about the combination of, perhaps even probiotics, with bacteriophage or combination of antibiotics with bacteriophage. Can you explain to people what bacteriophages are?[Dr. Elinav] Absolutely. Bacteriophages are intriguing viruses that, in contrast to the viruses that we all suffer from these days, are viruses that do not infect humans and do not infect any mammals or any eukaryotic cells. These are viruses that only infect bacteria and only attack bacteria. And these viruses are exceedingly common in nature. You can find many types of these viruses in our environment. In fact, these viruses are the big enemies of the bacteria that surround us. So there’s an arms race between bacteria and these bacteriophages, which attack bacteria, with the phages trying to kill bacteria and the bacteria developing a means of defending themselves against these viruses.

Phage therapy offers a promising solution for targeting disease-causing bacteria in the microbiome.

It’s an intriguing arms race that led to some groundbreaking discoveries, such as CRISPR, which is one of these defense mechanisms that has now been massively exploited by science in order to genome edit genes of interest. This is what occurs in nature. What we and others are thinking about in utilizing phages is that we have a huge unmet need in the Microbiome field. Imagine that you find a member, a microbe, a bacteria in the Microbiome that contributes to disease, contributes to IBD, contributes to cancer. What do you do? How do you get rid of these bacteria without harming the entire microbial surrounding that is so important for our health? Antibiotics are very limited. Manner of doing this: Antibiotics are non-specific and have big adverse effects. They result in the emergence of resistant strains, so you cannot use antibiotics forever for your entire life. Additionally, many of the disease-causing bacteria in the Microbiome are antibiotic-resistant. So, what do you do?

Developing Phage Cocktails to Target Specific Bacteria in the Microbiome for Therapeutic Purposes.

We have an unmet need for a means of removing a microbe from the Microbiome when we want to eliminate its bad effects. Therefore, we thought that phages could represent an attractive means of attacking a bacterium without impacting the entire Microbiome because phages are very specific in their targets.A given phage would only attack a certain family of bacteria that has receptors which the phage recognizes. As I mentioned before, bacteria have developed very strong defense mechanisms against phages as part of this arms race. Therefore, if you give just one phage, it is very likely that the bacteria it would attack would generate defense mechanisms that would make it resistant against this phage, and so your therapy would not be successful. To combat this, we are generating cocktails of phages that are targeting the same bacteria through different receptors or different mechanisms. Together, these phages are killing the bacteria without allowing it to develop this antiphage defense system.

Precision Probiotics: Targeting Pathogenic Bacteria While Preserving the Microbiome

If this is successful (and we’re now in the midst of clinical trials), we would be able to target a single bacteria or a single type of bacteria without killing the entire Microbiome and causing substantial collateral damage. Dr. Patrick, I wasn’t aware that the bacteria were developing these defense mechanisms, which is similar to antibiotic resistance. In a way, I guess, what are your thoughts about perhaps a future where we have this targeted type of treatment where, in addition to maybe your bacteriophage cocktail that’s targeting maybe one or perhaps two of the pathogenic types of bacteria, we combine them with a commensal type of bacteria in terms of allowing these precision probiotics? Perhaps there’s another name for it, but where you’re actually allowing the types of bacteria that we know are commensal that maybe these people are lacking, and this is a way to actually get them to be colonized, Dr. Elinav. Absolutely, I totally agree with what you suggest.

Combining Phage Therapy and Next-Generation Probiotics for Personalized Microbiome Treatment

And I think, you know, in the very young Microbiome field, we’re at the stage of understanding more and more of these interactions and the roles of different bugs and their communication systems, and we’re also increasingly busy in generating these new treatment options that, hopefully, would be put on the clinical shelf in years to come. But I am totally with you with the prospect that these new interventions would be combined with each other in contributing to what we call personalized or precision medicine. In other words, I would speculate that exactly as this suggests, a phage cocktail that would eradicate a family of bacteria from the Microbiome would be successfully combined with a probiotic or maybe a precision or next-generation probiotic, which would have the ability to colonize in a given person and would replace the niche now freed from this disease-contributing microbe.

Future of Microbiome: Potential for Probiotic and Phage Combination to Replace Blunt Antibiotic Treatment

So a combination between probiotics and phages, between dietary interventions that would enable better probiotic activity, and so on and so forth, is what I anticipate for our future, Dr. Patrick. What do you think the potential timeline would be on this? You know, ultimately replacing some of our current ways of life, like antibiotic treatment, for example, which is a very blunt sort of treatment. You know, it uses a very blunt mechanism. As you mentioned, it wipes out everything, good and bad bacteria. [Dr Elinav: Yeah, I mean when we criticize antibiotics, we need to be very careful.] You know, antibiotic interventions have amazingly transformed human lives, human health, and human medicine.

Balancing the Benefits and Costs of Antibiotics for Improved Health Interventions: A Data-Driven Approach.

You know, they increased, I think, close to 30 years of lifespan within a century and at least partially took care of what is considered to be our number one, two, and three cause of mortality for millions of years. However, as we discussed previously, antibiotics are also associated with many prices that we pay, and we’re just beginning to appreciate what they do to our microbiome.I don’t think that the current medical interventions would be replaced, but I am very hopeful that we would be able to implement them with new precision. Data-driven approaches that would enable us to increase the efficacy of these treatments and to be combined with them. As to the timelines..

Microbiome Field Holds Promise, But Still in Early Stages of Understanding

You know, there is quite a hype or overhype with the very young Microbiome field, and partially it’s justifiable because, in a matter of a decade and a half, we’ve discovered that our human body, in addition to the 20-something thousand genes that are encoded in our human cells, also contains 3 million and more bacterial genes that we didn’t appreciate and we didn’t know anything about. So this is, for sure, at least in my view, a revolution, but we’re only at the beginning of understanding this new world. Remember that it took decades for cardiology to get to a point where catheterization and all the fancy interventions that are saving lives today have been matured and developed for clinical use.”We’re only talking about a very infant field with lots of research, lots of advances, but also lots of challenges.

Exploring the Virome, Fungome, and Parasitome: Expanding Our Understanding of the Microbiome‘s Role in Human Health

I don’t want to give a time estimate, but I’m hopeful that within the next decade, we will start to see some interventions maturing in a data-driven way into the clinical shelf,” said Dr. Patrick. “That would be great. What role do you think viruses play in human health? And do you think that science may yet find that viruses modulate health in unexpected ways?” asked Dr. Elinav. “Absolutely. And I think one of the only reasons we’re so much into bacteria in the microbiome, especially in the gut microbiome, is because we have the tools and we’re a little bit lazy in kind of searching ‘under the lamp’ and going where it’s comfortable. But the more we probe into the virome, fungome, and parasitome, we find that there are whole kingdoms within our Microbiome which are understudied and underappreciated.

Dr. Patrick Discusses the Potential Impact of Other Kingdoms in the Microbiome on Human Health and Disease Risk.

Nonetheless, I think that they have potentially huge impacts on how the human body behaves in health and on the risk of developing disease and even on other kingdoms within the microbiome. So there is a huge amount of exciting research to be conducted in decoding these roles of these other kingdoms, and you know the future will tell us,” said Dr. Patrick. “Well, it’s very, very exciting. And I kind of just want to follow up.I do want to ask you about some of the top lifestyle modifications. And I know that we’ve been talking a lot about personalized nutrition, so it’s challenging to answer that question. But before we get there, just out of my own interest, we’ve talked a lot about the compounds that are generated in the gut, perhaps from many of the bacteria in the gut, and how these compounds can have beneficial effects on human health and also can have detrimental effects on human health.””And there’s one compound that I’ve been following for a while, and I continue to follow it.

TMAO: A Compound Associated with Atherosclerosis and Heart Disease Linked to Red Meat and Egg Consumption, but Conflicting Evidence Surrounds its Cardiovascular Risk

It’s a compound that is associated with atherosclerosis and heart disease. It’s TMAO, and it’s produced from precursors like L-carnitine or even choline, which are found in red meat and eggs, respectively. You’ll find a lot of conflicting evidence looking at, for example, the observational data and epidemiological studies. You see people who eat red meat and/or eggs, if they are healthy and don’t have metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, or dyslipidemia, and don’t have unhealthy lifestyle factors, such as being inactive, smoking, excessively drinking, or being overweight, actually don’t have a higher cardiovascular disease risk or mortality or all-cause mortality compared to people who are not consuming those types of foods that are high in L-carnitine or choline. But you’ll see if people have unhealthy lifestyle factors, they do have an elevated risk. You’ll see a lot of conflicting evidence, and you’re trying to figure out what to eat and what not to eat.

The Microbiome‘s Role in TMAO Production and Heart Disease Risk.

What role does the Microbiome play in the production of TMAO, which is thought to be associated with heart disease? Yeah, Dr. Elinav, it’s a great question based on a great set of stories by Stan Hazen’s group, which I think contributed a very important concept to our understanding of how the Microbiome cooperates with the human body in generating compounds that may impact human health.”So, in this particular case, we are talking about a connection between dietary compounds such as choline and carnitine, which are digested by the microbes into a compound called TMA. This TMA then influxes into the host and is further converted by the host’s liver into TMAO.

TMAO and Atherosclerosis: The Impact of Microbial Interactions on Cardiovascular Health

TMAO swims into the circulation, where, in some instances, it could impact macrophages that form plaques responsible for atherosclerosis and its potentially devastating health effects, including heart disease, brain disease, kidney disease, and more. From a fundamental Microbiome perspective, this is a fine example of cooperation that exists between dietary cues perceived by the microbes and further modulation by the host that leads to a health outcome. Now, as a physician, I agree that you cannot explain atherosclerosis by just one factor. You cannot say that one type of microbial reaction, one type of food, or even one genetic risk factor in a human individual would explain the entire spectrum of this huge and highly variable disease. By definition, these common multifactorial diseases are influenced by a combinatorial collection of risk factors.

Microbiome plays a crucial role in explaining the influence of diet and microbes on disease risk, says study

What this fascinating study has provided is the proof of concept on how mechanistically one could explain the influences of particular types of diet and microbes on the risk of developing a particular disease in some individuals, with other risk factors that contribute to this disease. So, I would never expect that every individual exposed to the same levels of carnitine or featuring the same bugs that convert choline into TMA would develop heart disease. It’s a combination of many different risk factors. Coincidentally, we have recently published another study focusing on a peculiar type of obesity that develops after cessation of cigarette smoking. To make a long story short, we found a similar cooperation between the Microbiome and the host in generating compounds that could drive this obesity phenomenon after smoking cessation.

Expert Discusses the Holobiont Concept and Low-Hanging Fruit for Improving Gut Health

So it seems that the concept which we termed the “holobiont” concept, in which you can regard a human as a combined set of microbes and human cells, could contribute to many of the more complex health outcomes that are so concerning to many of us, [Dr. Patrick]. Well, with that said, this has been a really interesting conversation, Eran. Thank you so much. We’ve talked a lot about precision medicine, personalized nutrition, and how people respond differently to foods. So it’s a little hard to come up with top lifestyle modifications or ways to improve gut health. But in your opinion, are there some low-hanging fruit? We are not there in terms of our precision medicine and personalized nutrition yet. We’re beginning to understand a lot more about it, thanks to research from your lab and others.

Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Benefit the Microbiome and Prevent Diabetes, Study Shows

But are there some low-hanging fruit things, like consuming foods that have some of these fermentable fibers or prebiotics, like you mentioned, or fermented foods that also have probiotics and things like that? [Dr. Elinav]. It’s a great question and one that I’m asked very often.I can tell you that what we’ve been discovering in our own studies, even without looking into the personalization aspect, is that some of the behaviors that your grandmothers would recommend to you are also beneficial in terms of what they do to the microbiome. So, for example, maintaining healthy sleep patterns and avoiding erratic sleep weight behavior has very profound effects on our measurement of the microbiome, how it impacts our regulation of weight and glucose or sugar metabolism, or the avoidance of type 2 diabetes.

Fiber is Beneficial, but Not All Fibers are Created Equal, Says Microbiome Researcher.

In terms of fiber, I think that the data is quite solid in promoting fiber as a good family of foods to consume. However, I must say that we and others are engaging in very exciting studies, which suggest that even with fibers, not all fibers are created equal. In other words, even fibers are composed of many different chemical formulations that differ from each other in the way that they are consumed by the microbes and impact the human body. So, even with fibers and with the generally beneficial effects that have been observed with them, it seems that some fibers are better than others. And we’re trying to contribute towards new knowledge that would refine this recommendation in different individuals and with different fibers.

Smoking and Poor Diet Disrupt Microbiome, Affecting Health and Obesity Risk, says Expert.

Smoking seems to be a universally bad behavior for many reasons, but when we measure what it does to the microbiome, we were intrigued to find that many cigarette-related chemicals not only reach the systemic circulation, but they actually penetrate the gut and impact the Microbiome towards a disturbed composition and function. And this has its own independent effects on, for example, the risk of developing obesity after you attempt to stop smoking. So all of these behaviors, which in many cases we know are probably not good for us, are also not good for us in terms of their effects on the microbiome. Beyond this, I think that we need data, knowledge, and to increasingly learn to harness diet to the individual in order to really optimize the power of the Microbiome in impacting human health. Patrick: And what about the timing of our food intake? Would you say that’s pretty important? Dr.

Personalized nutrition machine learning algorithms incorporate timing of meals for accurate dietary predictions, according to Dr. Elinav

Elinav: I can tell you that in our personalized nutrition machine learning algorithms, which are used to predict a person’s dietary responses in a very accurate manner, the timing of our diet and even the timing of our meal last night are part of the features that are used by this unbiased algorithm. In order to form its very accurate predictions, it seems that the timing of our diet is important for many different aspects coming from many different studies by us and by others. What we do with it in addition to trying to time our diet in a normal and routine manner is still under review or under research. Dr. Patrick: This algorithm that you were just referring to, is it from a top company? Was it started by you? Dr. Elinav: Yes, the Personalized Nutrition Project was an ambitious project which was headed by me and my colleague Eran Segal, who is a mathematician from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Groundbreaking Study Unveils the Cornerstone of Personalized Nutrition: Microbiome and Host-Related Data Analysis

We started this project back in 2012, and it was first published in 2015. It formed the cornerstone of what we call personalized nutrition today. In this study, we analyzed the data from 1,000 individuals in Israel who kindly gave us a week of their life. We measured and collected an unprecedented amount of Microbiome and host-related data, including a smartphone app that was used in this study and continuous glucose measurements that generated very accurate measurements of sugar responses to food in a week of follow-up. Then, very sophisticated machine learning and AI technologies were used to generate predictive algorithms for each individual that are able to accurately predict a person’s sugar responses to any given food. This eureka moment was the basis for personalized nutrition. Because it allowed us, for the first time, to formulate diets that are different between individuals but would hopefully lead to normalization of blood sugar levels.

Data-Driven Personalized Diets Outperform Standard Approaches in Pre-Diabetic Individuals, Reveals Long-Term Study

And this was tested by us in different contexts, including recently in a long-term randomized human trial, which compared this data-driven personalized approach to the gold standard American Diabetes Association recommended diet. We’ve quite convincingly shown that this personalized, science-driven approach was outperforming the current one-size-fits-all diet in a large group of pre-diabetic individuals, who are already predisposed to developing disturbances leading to type 2 diabetes. This set of discoveries has been repeated by other groups across the world and is gaining traction, basically telling us that data coming from the host from the human host and data coming from the Microbiome could be combined using advanced technologies in order to predict and maybe impact dietary interventions at different clinical contexts. [Dr. Patrick]. So this company…

Weizmann Institute’s gut microbiome research licensed to DayTwo for app scaling.

I know, it’s called DayTwo. Does a person have to wear a continuous glucose monitor or, like, you know, there are a bunch of biomarkers that need to be done to try this out with your… [, Dr. Elinav]? That’s a great question. And just to make it clear to our audience, all the research that I’ve stated was academically done in an academic setting without any company involved. But following the publication, the Weizmann Institute of Science has licensed the technology to a spin-off company called DayTwo, which further developed it for massive use in app scaling by many more individuals.

DayTwo’s 100,000 tests lead to more efficient personalized nutrition recommendations.

The advantage of DayTwo as a company is that now that they’ve performed over 100,000 tests on 100,000 people and more, the quality of data that was collected is so great and the resolution is so great that the people that are now engaged no longer need to go through all the procedures.”That characterized the early studies, and they don’t even need to wear our continuous glucose monitor anymore. In other words, a person can now provide a stool sample that can be shipped through the mail, plus some commonly available clinical parameters that they can provide through the internet. An accurate prediction of that person’s glycemic responses or sugar responses to foods, and recommendations that are peculiar and specific for that person, could be provided because of the background database that was already created. Now, I’m not part of the company; I’m one of the two scientific founders of the company, but the company is now running on its own, mainly in the U.S., and is available in the U..

Personalized diet approaches can be applied through DIY glucose monitoring, says researcher.

The findings that we discovered have been reproduced by others in other human studies in the UK and in the U.S. There are other commercial entities that are developing the same approaches.I can tell you that in the book we published called ‘The Personalized Diet,’ in addition to our story, we also describe kind of a do-it-yourself, a non-commercial way, to exploit these discoveries. For example, by buying a glucose monitor that you can purchase in your local pharmacy and by skin-pricking yourself and measuring your blood sugar responses after some of the foods that you usually consume at your daily lives, you can now start to tweak your diet and to change ingredients in your diet in reducing your sugar responses after meals. So you can do it yourself in, you know, of course, a much less sophisticated manner, but you can use the same principles that we’ve discovered in changing elements in your diet and making your sugar responses lower than before [Dr.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Provides Valuable Insights into Postprandial Glucose Responses, Says Dr. Elinav

Patrick].””So it sounds like you’re a proponent of people wearing a continuous glucose monitor.I’ve worn one for almost three years and have learned an immense amount of interesting information from wearing one. Probably one of the most surprising things I learned early on was how my body responded to the same foods I’ve always eaten in terms of my postprandial glucose response. It was completely out of control when my sleep was disrupted, which happened when I was a new mother. There are scientists, researchers, and physicians who do not like the continuous glucose-wearing approach because they claim it urges people to not eat healthy fruit or something like that because it may elevate their blood glucose level. What do you think, Dr. Elinav?I’m not sure I would propose that every person wears a continuous glucose monitor, but I respectfully disagree with those who say that measuring yourself or using science and technology to improve your daily life is wrong.

The Importance of Measuring and Personalizing Diets with Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Disregarding all the advances that science is proposing to us and not utilizing these advances for our benefit would make us miss a lot of the good that science has to offer. By wearing a continuous glucose monitor, you may experience many surprises. We’ve measured thousands of people, and I can tell you that almost every person we’ve measured has had counterintuitive surprises. Some people spike their blood sugar to the roof when they eat tomatoes, but when they combine tomatoes with some white bread, the response goes down.”So, you know that by not doing the experiment or by not measuring themselves, they would deprive themselves of the benefits of knowing what is good and what is less good for themselves. So, I’m all for measurement.I’m all for knowing and for doing this rationally and carefully. But doing it [Dr. Patrick], I’m 100% in agreement with you. So, your book is “The Personalized Diet”. You co-wrote it with your collaborator, Dr. Eran Segal [Dr. Elinav].

Dr. Elinav discusses personalized nutrition and the microbiome on podcast.

Segal [Dr. Patrick], Segal [Dr. Elinav], yes [Dr. Patrick], okay. And DayTwo, which is now licensed by the Weizmann Institute for Science, is the app you were talking about. But again, thank you for talking about the alternative approach with perhaps even people getting a continuous glucose monitor if people want to follow. You’re on Twitter. Your Twitter handle is elinav_lab, so that would be E-L-I-N-A-V underscore lab L-A-B. And you also have two lab websites. If you Google your name, Elinav.., yes, sorry, E-L-I-N-A-V, you’ll find all the lab research that you’re doing. Phenomenal, I mean an amazing impact that your research has had on our understanding of the interaction between the Microbiome in our gut and human health. And I’m so happy that we were able to connect and have a conversation today.I’ve been a big fan of your research for a long time now. So, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and taking time to have this very interesting discussion with me. [Dr.

Leading Microbiome Researcher Elinav Discusses Personalized Response to Diet with Rhonda

Elinav] replied, “It’s my absolute pleasure and great talking to you, Rhonda.”

Read More: Tips For Maintaining Your Vision As You Age

The post Microbiome Insights into Personalized Response to Diet, Obesity, and Leaky Gut appeared first on The Health And Wellness News Blog.

Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. George Papanicolaou Discuss Erectile Dysfunction on The Doctor’s Pharmacy Podcast.

“See, all that the blue pill does is fix that end problem. It fixes that. Let’s just make sure we get the erection and maintain it. But there are reasons why we get there. Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that this episode contains some colorful language. So, if you’re listening with kids, you might want to save this episode for later. Welcome to the Doctor’s Pharmacy.I’m Dr. Mark Hyman, and that’s pharmacy with an ‘F’, ‘far macy’, a place for conversations that matter. And if you’re a guy listening to this, or you’re a woman who has a guy, you better listen up because this is about a very common problem. It’s known as ED, otherwise known as erectile dysfunction, which is a very, very common problem. We’re going to get into that, and today our guest is none other than Dr. George Papanicolaou, who’s one of our key physicians here at the Ultra Wellness Center, who is an extraordinary physician, doing great work here, and we are just so excited to talk about this topic. Aren’t we, George?

Discovering the Roots of Male Erectile Dysfunction with Dr. George Shapiro

Thrilled? Absolutely. It’s a little uncomfortable, but I guess we’re going to have to get into it because we’re doctors and we’re professionals, so we can really talk about it. So, George, this is a big problem. Guys are having trouble. Women also have a lot of sexual dysfunction. We’re going to maybe cover that on another podcast. Today, I want to talk about male erectile dysfunction with you because it’s such a big issue. The lucky accident of a failed drug experiment for a blood pressure drug led to the development of Viagra, which I talked about on a podcast with Dr. Louis Ignarro, who is the discoverer of nitric oxide, which is a little molecule that causes your blood vessels to dilate, and that’s how Viagra works.””It was meant to be a blood pressure pill, but it didn’t work so well. However, it worked better for the side effects that the guys got, and all of a sudden, it was a blockbuster pill. Like a blockbuster, which means that people needed it.

Viagra’s Impact on Erectile Dysfunction and the Importance of Open Communication About Sexual Health

So, tell us about the history of this whole story, the prevalence, how common it is, and what is going on. Why are we seeing such an epidemic of this? One of the key things was in 1998 when Viagra hit the scene. It really opened the door for men to have an opportunity to talk about what had been going on for centuries, and that was erectile dysfunction. So, great, Viagra was awesome. Not only did it work, but it opened the door for that conversation because 10% of men under the age of 40 have erectile dysfunction, and by the time you’re 70, you have a 60% chance of having erectile dysfunction. So, that’s a lot of people having erectile dysfunction, and people’s sex lives are not over at age 50, 60, or 70. There are men that come to me wanting to have prescriptions for Viagra at age 70, and I always tell them I’m not giving it to you unless you get a written note from your wife. That’s not going to go well!

Traditional Approaches to Treating Erectile Dysfunction: From Vacuum Pumps to Revascularization

Actually, yesterday I was doing a console with a patient who was 87 years old, who’s still having sex with his wife.I don’t plan on stopping; I’m going at least to 100. Why stop? That’s exactly right. So, this is a very common problem. From a traditional medicine point of view, there really wasn’t much of an approach to this beforehand. We had some really coarse and crude treatments.”Talk about the traditional approach to treating erectile dysfunction, aside from the category of drugs that includes Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, which are now widely prescribed and effective. Prior to these drugs, there were primitive methods such as vacuum pumps and revascularization, as vascular issues and endothelial dysfunction are key factors in causing erectile dysfunction. Essentially, this means that hardening of the arteries in the penis reduces blood flow and affects the endothelial cells, which are the cells lining the blood vessels in the penis.

How Nitric Oxide Helps Men with Erectile Dysfunction

These cells regulate blood flow and inflammation, and nitric oxide is a key regulator of this process. There are multiple reasons why men experience decreased blood flow in the penis leading to erectile dysfunction. To understand why drugs like Viagra work, it’s important to know that they stimulate the release of nitric oxide, which acts on the endothelial cells in the blood vessels of the penis. It also acts on the corpus cavernosa muscles, resulting in the simultaneous relaxation of those muscles. This allows blood to flow into the big muscles of the penis, which start and maintain the erection. Nitrous oxide also acts on the small blood vessels, causing them to constrict and keep the blood in the cavernous muscles, which further sustains the erection. This process is called tumescence. After ejaculation, the penis relaxes, and this is called detumescence.

Understanding the Role of Metabolic Syndrome in Erectile Dysfunction

Five phosphodiesterase breaks down the compound responsible for the relaxation and constriction, causing the small blood vessels to relax and the penis to become flaccid. Viagra inhibits five phosphodiesterase, allowing cyclic GMP to maintain the constriction of the small blood vessels, resulting in a longer-lasting erection. Metabolic syndrome can affect this process. It is important to remember these chemical names during sex, but it may not be practical.”When you’re thinking about people with ED, all that the blue pill does is fix the end problem – it fixes the erection and helps maintain it. However, there are reasons why we get there. We get there because of stress and its impact on the very sensitive neurovascular system. This system needs to function properly for you to have an erection and ejaculation. Metabolic syndrome, which is pre-diabetes, includes obesity, dyslipidemia (abnormal cholesterol and triglycerides), hypertension, and insulin resistance.

Insulin Resistance and Endothelial Dysfunction: The Root Cause of Erectile Dysfunction

Insulin resistance is connected to endothelial dysfunction. When the endothelial cells aren’t working, nitrous oxide won’t have an impact, and you won’t be able to start an erection. While you can give the person Viagra, it’s better to fix the underlying metabolic syndrome, which has many other impacts on overall health, health span, and lifespan. Basically, people are eating lots of sugar, starch, and unhealthy food, which leads to pre-diabetes and other health problems. This problem affects every other American, and if you take out the kids, it’s probably more than half of the adults.

Insulin Resistance Linked to Erectile Dysfunction and Cardiovascular Disease, Says Expert

Therefore, we have 75% of people overweight and 88% metabolically unhealthy in this country.”Most of those people have some degree of insulin resistance, and what you’re saying is that when you have this phenomenon going on in your body, it damages the ability of the lining of your arteries to function properly. So you can’t get blood flow in your organs, not just in your penis, but in your heart and brain, which is why insulin resistance causes heart attacks, strokes, and dementia. This is all connected, and in fact, the first sign of heart disease is probably having trouble getting an erection. You should be worried about your heart and brain because they’re the ones that are really the target of what’s going on.I think people don’t realize that it’s not just a local problem; it’s a systemic problem.

Functional Medicine: Addressing Root Causes of Erectile Dysfunction for Overall Health Improvement

That’s one of the points I really hoped to make today because, as important as erections are, it’s getting those root causes that impact your overall health, and then the cherry on top of the pie is greater actions.I think most people don’t realize that our whole system is connected, and that’s what’s so different about functional medicine. It’s looking at the whole system. Most people don’t think of their diet when they think about having sexual dysfunction, but that’s the first thing we think about. We do think about stress, for sure, as that plays a role, but there’s also alcohol. One of the roles that alcohol plays is that when you’re drinking alcohol, that itself is going to impact that endothelial dysfunction during the time of use, and you may not have an erection that night. Here’s what happens: you can stop drinking and say, “Okay, that will fix it,” but something happened. You had this issue.”You can have a psychogenic response called performance anxiety.

Performance Anxiety: The Main Cause of Erectile Dysfunction for Most Men

For some men, once they experience failure, it multiplies and they develop performance anxiety, which becomes a psychogenic problem. The vast majority of men with erectile dysfunction actually have a performance anxiety or psychogenic cause. Basically, if it doesn’t work once, you’ll be afraid it won’t work every time, making the problem worse. It’s a hard mental thing to fix, but the fascinating thing to me is that the phenomena around seeing this as a systemic metabolic vascular issue is so important. There are many ways to address it, which we’ll discuss. There are also new ways to address erectile dysfunction beyond Viagra. Traditional medicine offers the vacuum pump, which is pre-Viagra, and penile implants that can work. Alprostadil is an injection or something that goes inside the urethra and the penis, which is a prostaglandin. Revascularization is another option, which I would love for you to talk about.

Revascularization and Other Treatment Options for Erectile Dysfunction

Revascularization is essentially having hardening of the arteries, and there are two ways to do it, just like you have angioplasty or stents placed in the heart.”The same thing can be done for the penis, and that’s one possibility. It’s basically angioplasty for your penis. Yeah, wow, that’s incredible.I know, yeah, again. These are very interesting responses to the problem, but I would like to go through other possibilities. As you said, we’re going to talk about stem cells and platelet-rich plasma.I always like to go back to the idea that you can be revascularized by why get there in the first place, exactly right? You know it’s like you get a stent, but you got a fixture. All of these things actually work.I mean, I’ve had patients of mine use the vacuum pump.I don’t know how they do it. It works, doc.I love it.I’ve had people get penile implants. It works, doc.I love it, and they’re pressing their testicle, and they’re getting their erection, and you know that’s how the pump works.

Exploring the Link Between Testosterone and Erectile Dysfunction in Aging Men

You know they have the pump inside one testicle, and you start pressing on it, and it gives you your erection, and it works.I’ve had men use the injections. They feel like 18 years old again, but they all have diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and I can’t get them to get to that underlying cause. So almost sometimes when I don’t let them get their erections right, well, let’s talk about testosterone because there’s this whole conversation out there about male menopause or andropause, and this whole syndrome of low t or low testosterone, and I think part of it’s gone to the extreme, and there are a lot of bodybuilders using testosterone. And I think it can be used inappropriately, but what I want you to talk about is why do we see the drop in testosterone as men age because I think this is really important.

Natural Ways to Boost Testosterone and Improve Erectile Dysfunction

There are natural ways to raise testosterone. There are ways that we are living that lower testosterone. So let’s talk about fixing testosterone, because when you do, a lot of things improve. Erections may or may not improve, but testosterone definitely impacts erectile dysfunction. It affects the five phosphodiesterases we discussed earlier and can also affect nitric oxide, resulting in better erections. You asked why testosterone levels drop off, and while there is a natural decline as men age, losing about one percent per year after age 30, this alone is not the only reason. Many older men have high testosterone levels, while others do not. Those who do not may have sleep apnea, drink too much alcohol, have diabetes, or struggle to manage stress. Pre-diabetes and insulin resistance are particularly problematic, and the more belly fat a person has, the lower their testosterone. Alcohol is also an issue, as it increases aromatase, an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen.

Alcohol and Diet: Key Factors Contributing to Erectile Dysfunction in Men

This is why men who drink heavily may experience lower testosterone levels. Men can develop man boobs, big bellies, lose hair on their chest and legs, and have high estrogen levels, making them more like women. It’s important for men to understand that alcohol consumption and diet can contribute to erectile dysfunction. Eating starch and sugar can lower testosterone levels, but consuming healthy fats can increase testosterone levels by providing the precursor molecule for hormone production. It’s crucial to also prioritize good sleep, stress management, and limit alcohol intake. Dr. Hyman thanks listeners for tuning into the podcast and introducing experts who share valuable insights.I am doing something called Mark’s Picks, which is my weekly newsletter. In it, I share my favorite things from food to supplements, gadgets, and tools that enhance your health. It’s all the cool stuff that my team and I use to optimize our health, and I would love for you to sign up for the weekly newsletter.

Functional Medicine Approach to Addressing Erectile Dysfunction and Low Testosterone: Getting to the Root Cause.

I will only send it to you once a week on Fridays, and I promise not to send anything else. All you need to do is go to drhyman. com/picks to sign up, and I’ll share with you my favorite things that I use to enhance my health and live younger longer. Now, back to this week’s episode. Let’s talk about a functional medicine approach to addressing erectile dysfunction and low testosterone, which often go together. When someone comes in complaining of this, I want to make sure that I make the right diagnosis.I always emphasize the fact that when people come to my office, I’m going to get a timeline of events.I want to know everything that has happened throughout their lifetime, including early eating habits, traumas, stressors, disease patterns, antibiotic and medication use, and trauma. All of these things create a timeline, and once you have that timeline, you can begin to piece together a narrative that leads you to the root cause or causes of their disease.

Erectile Dysfunction: Uncovering Underlying Health Issues Beyond the Obvious Symptoms

It can be easy for a person to come in and tell me they have erectile dysfunction. It started about three months ago when I tried to have an erection, but I couldn’t when I was with my girlfriend. Ever since then, I’ve been having a problem. Oftentimes, it’s not as clear as the patient thinks it is. By asking them for a long history, I start to find out that maybe that wasn’t the key turning point. He was slowly building up because of other issues, such as alcohol use, a family history of dyslipidemia, and high cholesterol and triglycerides, which may lead to early vascular disease. It’s really important to make sure we get to all those issues and not be biased by a patient’s opinion or what they identify. When we’re talking about functional medicine, we’re talking about a detailed timeline and using the matrix, which is a paradigm that looks at systems and not symptoms.

Understanding the Impact of Lifestyle on Body Systems in Erectile Dysfunction Treatment

It takes your conditions and attaches them to your various systems, such as your cardiovascular system, immune system, or GI system. We want to know how all those stories, symptoms, and lifestyles are impacting those systems because they all work together. To get your body to work the way it’s supposed to, you have to deal with all those things, such as inflammation, which can affect endothelial function. Toxins like mercury and lead can also impact endothelial mitochondrial function. It’s not a matter of whether you have heavy metals, but how much you have and how well you’re detoxing.”So, I also want to know about your exposure to toxins. That’s how I start when someone comes in to see me.I also think very similarly to you and go through the matrix, but there are things I’m really focusing on.I’m looking at what their diet is. Are they eating an inflammatory diet?

Insulin Resistance: A Common Underlying Cause of Erectile Dysfunction?

Anything that causes inflammation will damage the blood vessel linings and can affect blood flow, such as processed food and fried foods. Lack of protective foods that are anti-inflammatory is also important. These are things that will really dig into looking at insulin resistance. Does this person have pre-diabetes? We look at insulin levels and things that nobody really looks at traditionally.I think the insulin resistance thing is almost 8 out of 10 of my patients that come here to the Ultra Wellness Center. They don’t just get a blood sugar or hemoglobin A1c. They primarily get a fasting glucose tolerance test. That’s the most sensitive way to uncover insulin resistance because it can be hidden. If we use the current standards of a fasting blood sugar of 100, that’s not low enough. It needs to be lower. When you do a fasting insulin resistance test, a person fasts and after that fast, you give them 75 grams of sugar.

The Importance of Measuring Insulin Levels in Managing Glucose and Testosterone Levels for Erectile Dysfunction Treatment

Then you see how their body responds and how they produce insulin in response to that bolus of sugar. If they’re able to keep that blood sugar at a normal range at lower levels of insulin, we know that they have a very good carbohydrate metabolic glucose and an efficient way of managing glucose. But you’re right.””But if you see someone who is able to manage your sugar and insulin, that’s the key. However, I’ve seen patients who, for example, have normal sugars but high insulin. Here’s the take-home point: when you go to your doctor and ask for a glucose tolerance test, good luck. If you get it, they have to measure insulin, which most doctors don’t do. You can measure fasting insulin, but most doctors don’t even do that. If your insulin is over five, you probably have an issue, and if your triglycerides are higher and HDL is low, it’s a concern. So, I’m looking at all that, and I’m also thinking about what’s going on with their testosterone levels.

Functional Medicine Tests for Adrenal Dysfunction in Erectile Dysfunction Patients

I’ll look at total free testosterone and other markers to get a sense of their adrenal stress and whether they have adrenal dysfunction or are chronically stressed. We can look at things like DHEA or saliva cortisol, but these are not tests that you will get through your primary care physician. At Harvard Vanguard, for example, it’s just not going to happen. However, I do think you’re right. We’re looking under the hood and have very specific tests to do that. Functional medicine is like looking under the hood of a car, while regular medicine is like trying to diagnose what’s wrong with your car by listening to the noises it makes. We don’t guess; we test, and we happen to have really good tests at the ready. The glucose tolerance test is a conventional test.”We can all do it, it’s just a matter of understanding the need for it. Then, as you know, we look at our lipid profiles.

Advanced Testing: A Comprehensive Approach to Erectile Dysfunction Treatment

We don’t use the conventional lipid profile, but instead use the NMR and look at markers of inflammation that may not always be looked at, such as oxidative LDL. LDL can become oxidized due to inflammatory states, so we also look at CRP, which is like rancid fat in your blood and isn’t good for your arteries. We also look at other inflammatory markers, which are critical. We do advanced testing, including a four-point cortisol test, as part of a profile that also looks at hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. This not only tells us what your totals are, but we can also see if you’re an aromatizer. On the tests that I look at, I can see the pathways in your physiology that show me testosterone being converted to estrogen. Are you over-aromatizing and producing too much estrogen? Some men are naturally over-aromatizers, and they may come to me complaining about having a hard time with erections or having belly fat and boobs since childhood.

John’s Case: Addressing Erectile Dysfunction Beyond the Little Blue Pill

After doing this test, I can show them that they are physiologically over-aromatizers due to genetic reasons. There are natural inhibitors of aromatase that can block that conversion, and we can do something about it. There are even medications that can help with this, such as Remodex, which is used to prevent breast cancer by reducing estrogen in the body. There are many tricks available to us, and as we work on these things, we can also help with erectile dysfunction. However, these are not simple issues to address, and it’s not always a matter of just taking a little blue pill. Let’s discuss a patient I had named John, who came to me with erectile dysfunction. John was a classic case, 56 years old and not feeling up to par. Despite being told by his doctor that everything was fine, he knew that his erections weren’t as strong as they used to be, and he wasn’t sleeping well or feeling as energetic.

High-Stress Job and Lifestyle Contributing to Erectile Dysfunction in Middle-Aged Men, Study Finds

He was also at an age where menopause was prevalent. John was a bit overweight and had a high-stress job as an international sales manager, which involved a lot of socializing and drinking. As a result, he had extra belly fat and was drinking too much.”He wants to retire early. He’s very focused on his retirement and making his bonuses so that he can save tons of money, and he’s very proud of that. The officers were talking about his treatment. Of course, he says his main focus is really his erections. He said that Hindi and Kennedy were about to have diabetes over and over again, so it was just a matter of saying, ‘Let’s work on your lifestyle before we condemn you to a lifetime of paying for a little blue pill.’ So, if you want to overall feel better and have erections, let’s start working on it.

Insulin Resistance and Pre-Diabetes: Addressing the Root Cause Through Diet

The first thing I did was get all the testing done, including a fasting glucose tolerance test, and of course, he had insulin levels way above 40 at an hour and two hours, which is significant for insulin resistance. He was actually on the board of being declared totally pre-diabetic. His hemoglobin A1c was 5.6, so 5.8 is considered pre-diabetic, but I told him for all intents and purposes, he’s pre-diabetic. Why do I do that? Because when they hear the word insulin resistance, they don’t know what that is, but when they hear the word diabetes, they know what that is, and that’s bad. So, I purposely say that he’s pre-diabetic. All of a sudden, I have leverage. ‘How do I fix that, doc?’ he asked. ‘Let’s work on your diet,’ I said. The first thing we did was put him on a cardio metabolic diet. We detoxed him by taking out sugars, processed foods, gluten, dairy, alcohol, soy, and basically put him on a whole food, vegetable-based diet.””You know, a clean diet minus those things.

Stress Management and Nutrition: Key Factors in Treating Erectile Dysfunction

Just that alone in the first six weeks definitely leads to me feeling better, losing weight, and sleeping better. The second thing I tend to focus on is stress, particularly in men. So, I tell them that by the time they come back to me in six weeks, I want them to have established a good stress management program.I’ll get even more specific and say that I want them meditating at least once a day.I am a huge believer in the power of meditation to alter every part of your physiology, improve it for life, and actually slow the aging process in many parts of our body, most particularly the brain. So, I really emphasize meditation and stress management. That’s what I did with John. John’s lifestyle change started with nutrition, followed by meditation, and then some additional things like fish oil and vitamin D. His vitamin D was really low, at 17. Vitamin D is a very important precursor to all hormonal function, so we got his vitamin D up.

Natural Approaches to Improve Erectile Function and Testosterone Levels

We also got his fish oils to reduce inflammation as he lost weight.I gave him an adrenal adaptogen to help him modulate his cortisol, because cortisol can impact erectile function. After about nine months, he lost weight and his testosterone was low, in the low 400s. We talked about testosterone replacement, but I really pushed him to focus on diet, stress management, and sleep. We did those things and he felt better. By the time we were done in nine months, his hemoglobin A1C had gone down to 5.1 and his blood sugar was way better. He had dropped 23 pounds.””He was sleeping better, started meditating, and his erections were a lot better. They weren’t perfect, but the doctor said they were tremendously better. That’s such a great story, and I think there are also other things out there that people are using. When do you decide to give someone testosterone? That’s a reasonable thing to do as guys age, right?

Testosterone Therapy: An Effective Treatment for Improving Sexual Function

I think there’s some controversy about it, but it can definitely help increase desire, libido function, pleasure, and orgasm. So, when would you decide to give someone testosterone? In his particular case, his testosterone wasn’t where it should be. It was 450, and, like I said, things weren’t perfect even after nine months. So, we talked about testosterone at that point.I use it when somebody’s done everything they can to really improve their lifestyle, manage their metabolic syndrome, manage their insulin resistance, manage their hypertension, manage their stress, and their testosterone just isn’t budging. That’s when I use it, and so I did.I put John on testosterone, and you can do it topically, with injections, or with pellets. There are a lot of ways to do it that a doctor can prescribe, and you have to monitor it. You also have to make sure you take the right supplements with it to regulate some of the things that happen around estrogen, so it’s going to be a really effective treatment.

Boost Testosterone Naturally with Diet and Exercise to Treat Erectile Dysfunction

What’s interesting is you can increase your testosterone significantly by fixing your diet, adding more fats, decreasing sugar and carbs, reducing stress and alcohol, and exercising. Exercise is a very interesting thing that happens to the body. When you exercise, you can boost testosterone, but there are very specific exercises that can do that.”Can you talk a little bit about that? Specifically, what exercises will improve testosterone levels? Number one is aerobic activity, and number two is high-intensity interval training. Those are the two that I recommend the most for patients, in combination with weight lifting. Why do you recommend weight lifting? Well, weight lifting is beneficial for multiple reasons. Muscle mass helps improve carbohydrate metabolism, and it is also important for aging. You need muscle to be able to move and function properly. That’s why I prescribe exercise, particularly weight lifting.

New Treatments for Erectile Dysfunction: Testosterone, Stem Cell Injections, and Shock Wave Therapy

On the other side of that, I also prescribe testosterone to help men make muscle gains. Often, they’re not making muscle gains while working out, so testosterone can benefit them in dealing with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and help them age more appropriately. Absolutely, I think that’s right. Testosterone can help, but weightlifting and using heavier weights can also build testosterone along with increased fat. There are a few other treatments that are up and coming, such as stem cell injections, exosome injections, and platelet-rich plasma. These are being used to varying degrees of effectiveness. One treatment that I find fascinating is shock wave therapy. This is an ultrasound shock wave therapy that is applied to the penis with a little ultrasound device. They use a little lidocaine to anesthetize the penis because it’s a little uncomfortable, but it usually takes about 15-20 minutes.

Comprehensive Approach at Ultra Wellness Center to Help Men with Erectile Dysfunction

It’s done over a period of weeks, and what it does is help to break down some of the stiffness of the arteries that are causing decreased blood flow. This can really increase blood flow and vascularization, and it’s been well-researched. So, I think that’s another interesting avenue, but I think for men listening and women who are married to men, this is a solvable problem. It’s an embarrassing problem, and there’s a stigma about it. People feel anxious talking about it, but often it’s a medical issue that can be sorted and solved. Sometimes you need to think a little bit out of the box, and it’s just not as simple as taking Viagra or Cialis. There’s a lot more to it, and I think that’s really the approach we take here at the Ultra Wellness Center. It’s a comprehensive approach that looks at all the factors in someone’s life that may be impacting their sex drive, sexual function, and their ability to enjoy life well into their 80s and 90s. So, absolutely, I think it’s important.

87-Year-Old Patient Inspires Strategies for Better Sexual Health, Says Doctor Mark Hyman

I was very inspired yesterday talking to a patient who’s 87 and still having sex with his wife. We were just talking about how to make it a little bit better. But that is possible if you pay attention to the quality of your health and deal with your lifestyle. So, George, thank you so much for being part of the Doctor’s Pharmacy House Call podcast. If you’ve been listening to this and you love the podcast, share it with your friends and family, maybe not your mother, [laughter], but certainly leave a comment. We would love to know how you have managed through this difficult problem, whether you have struggled with it yourself or if your partner has. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast and we will see you next time on The Doctor’s Pharmacy. Thanks, Mark.

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“Improving Spinal Health: Low-Impact Exercises for Lower Back Pain Relief”

Lower Back Pain is a universal human experience.Almost everyone has it at some point.If your job involves repetitive lifting, pulling, or anything that twists the spine, it may contribute to Back Pain.However, sitting at a desk all day comes with risks of its own, especially if your chair is uncomfortable or you tend to slouch.The kind of Back Pain that follows when you do certain movements too frequently or exercises wrong or too hard is often caused by muscle strain.But sometimes, Back Pain can be related to the intervertebral discs.If a bulging or ruptured disc presses on the sciatic nerve, pain may run from the buttock down one leg.This is called sciatica.Of course, there are also other reasons for lower Back Pain, like spinal stenosis, spondylitis, and many others.In this video, we focus on spinal health through the right exercise selection with the right intensity.These exercises are low-impact movements and train your whole core in a balanced way.

“Effective and Safe Exercises for Lower Back Pain: Improving Stabilization and Mobility while Avoiding Common Mistakes”

In addition, they improve your spinal stabilization and mobility.In contrast to these movements, we also show you the most common workout mistakes that lead to Back Pain or make it worse.If you already have problems, please remember that some of these exercises are not wrong in general.They are just not the best solution if you already deal with Back Pain or if you are an absolute beginner without the right amount of body awareness and coordination.The first one is leg lifts.This exercise is very good to work your abs.The only problem is that it creates a very long lever.If you’re not able to maintain the right pelvis position and with that muscle tension, you put too much pressure on your spine.Most beginners are simply not able to maintain the right position because they lack coordination or they are simply too weak to stabilize their spine.Leg lifts are not about lifting your legs in the first place.The main goal is to use the legs as a lever to increase the tension for your abs.

“Exercises to Avoid for Lower Back Pain: The Dangers of Arching Your Back, Sit-Ups, and Rounded Spine Toe Touches”

So, if you arch your back and let the hip flexors do all the work, you’re not doing your body any kind of favor.You can add the same principle when it comes to dragonflex or handstands.Arching your back passively without the right amount of muscle tension in these exercises is always a bad idea.Now, please don’t think that an arched back is wrong in general.It’s a completely different story if you do active spinal mobility or strength work.Here, you have full control over the spine and the right amount of muscle tension.The next no-go are sit-ups.As in the example before, you create a long lever for your lower spine.And without the right amount of muscle tension, you put too much pressure on it.Beginners tend to do this exercise with too much momentum, and they overuse their hip flexors too much.The sit-up is also not a good exercise for most people, and there are better alternatives, but more on that later.The last exercise you should avoid is touching your toes with a rounded spine.

“Discover the Top Low-Impact Exercises for Lower Back Pain Relief”

This exercise is actually pretty good, but if you already have back issues, especially when we talk about spinal stenosis or disc problems, we suggest avoiding it.While touching your toes can improve your spinal mobility, the fluid flow in your discs, and the flexibility of your muscles, it also puts some pressure on your lower spine if you are not able to stabilize this movement properly.If you want to know more about touching your toes, we linked a video in the description that explains all the pros and cons in detail.Alright, now it’s time to take a look at the 5 best low-impact exercises for your lower back.The first one is the cat cow.This exercise is great because you actively work on your spinal flexion and extension without putting too much pressure on this area.This has to do with the very low shearing forces in this position because of the knee and arm support.At the same time, you activate all the important muscles that are necessary to bend and extend your spine.

“Spine-Friendly Exercises: Hollow Body Crunch and Bridging to Alleviate Lower Back Pain”

The second exercise is the hollow body crunch.Here, you aim for a posterior pelvic tilt while raising your shoulder blades off the ground.If you compare it with leg lifts, you will notice that your thighs are in a vertical line above your pelvis.This creates a very small lever for your lower spine, and with that, much lower pressure.The same counts for the comparison with the sit-up.In the hollow body crunch, you only raise your shoulder blades off the ground and not the entire upper body.This makes the exercise not only more spine-friendly, but it’s also much better to focus on your abs.The abs contract if you tilt your pelvis backward and flex your thoracic spine.Any further movement is done by your hip flexors and is totally useless if you want to train your abs.The third exercise is bridging.This exercise is really good to activate your back and your glutes.The glutes can also play a role in Back Pain if they are too weak and other muscles are too tight.

“Tips for Proper Form during Quadruped Arm and Leg Raise to Alleviate Lower Back Pain”

It can lead to the lower cross syndrome.When you do the bridge, make sure not to overextend your lower spine.Try to hold it in a neutral position and focus on glute tension when you raise your body up and down.The fourth exercise is the quadruped arm and leg raise.Here, you raise one arm and the opposite leg off the ground until they form a straight horizontal line with your torso.Please make sure not to overextend your spine or to shift and rotate your body.This contralateral exercise is great to work against imbalances and focuses on your spine extensors and stabilizers.If you can’t maintain the correct body alignment because of balance problems, you can start by only extending one leg or one arm at a time to maintain or build an evenly trained body.It’s important to work with both sides equally.So, for each set you do with your right arm and your left leg, you do one set with your left arm and your right leg.

“Discover Effective Knee to Chest Stretch and More Exercises to Relieve Lower Back Pain”

The last exercise is the knee to chest stretch.This is a more passive exercise but still great to release muscle tension in your lower back.You can do this exercise while lying on your back or in a kneeling position.Alright, guys, we hope these tips are helpful for everyone who deals with Back Pain.If you want to develop a strong and healthy body and avoid Back Pain from the beginning, you should take a look at our step-by-step workout programs on kalimov.com.Every program is designed as an online course and optimized to strengthen your body and improve your physical health.Just take a look at our selection and get the right one that fits your level and goals.If you have any further questions, just leave a comment.My name is Alex, and I’ll see you in the next video. [Music]

Check Video HERE

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The post 5 Exercises for a Strong Lower Back and lower back pain relief appeared first on The Health And Wellness News Blog.

bad breath Caused By Competition Between Good And Bad Bacteria

Hey just warming up here and once I bust some competition, so a big fan of college football.So I really love the spirit of the competition and to see the strategy and the plays the teams make to hold out and beat each other.But today, when I talk about, is the competition going on in your mouth right now that competition is causing you to have bad breath and I’m gonna tell you exactly why and it’s not reason do you think it’s not necessarily how you brush or floss or The type of toothpaste you use or type of chewing gum you like it, has to do with bacteria.Now in each of our mouths, we have billions of bacteria, definitely the dirtiest place in our body.That’S billions with a beat, so I’m gonna draw a picture here.Talk to you a little about how that works.So this smiley face on my left represents good bacteria.Look at the kind you want this angry face on my right.That represents the bad bacteria.

bad breath: Oral Probiotics Can Help

So simply put if you have bad breath, you have too many of these too much bad bacteria.It’S also the same bacteria that can cause tooth decay.Cavities gum, disease, mouth cancer can be the same ones that cause bad breath. So the simple solution is, we need to get more leads. We need to turn one smiley face into many smiley faces. We can’t totally eliminate the bag, but we can reduce them to a smaller size, all right Sophie.We have to have bacteria our mouths, definitely the dirtiest place in our body, but the reason you have bad bacteria isn’t necessarily because of your grandma or grandpa, or because your parents had bad teeth or bad breath back. A lot of recent studies are finding that genetics. Don’T have nearly as much to do with it as environment do so the environment by mental factors. We’Ve got three big ones, one is smoking, two is antibiotics and three is diet and hygiene all right, so smoking, antibiotics and then diet and higher views and things.

Oral Probiotics Can Help Cure bad breath

We do at home those have the biggest impact on how much good or bad bacteria we have so fries down. One by one.Smoking smoke kills it’s bad for our blood, it’s harmful our mouth.It can cause mouth cancer, so smoking can kill a lot of bacteria and the problem is it’s killing the good ones. You can have no problems with bad breath. Second, one antibiotics: this is one not a lot of people know about, but we’re seeing more and more problems with antibiotics. So when you take an antibiotic, the problem is it’s non-selective, and what that means is that an antibiotic targets, all bacteria – it kills everything. It’S not selected, and so once you finish the antibiotics, whatever bacteria gets in there.First, it’s gonna win.If it’s bad, you can get overgrowth, you can have problems, you can eat infections in your mouth, other parts of your body skin and we’re finding that microbiome inside of our digestive system, our skin and especially in our mouth, has a lot to do with our lifestyle.

Oral probiotics Can Help Keep Your Breath Fresh

Our happiness, how we feel or overall health, so last one is diet, hiking, okay, flossing and brushing are very, very important drinking lots of water, but also the type of foods we eat.If you have ever heard of prebiotics those are foods with special types of fibers like healthy vegetables, that actually help the good bacteria grow.They feed the good bacteria to reproduce.We have to have a good bacteria to be healthy.Not only does it benefit our mouths benefits our nose eye throughout our respiratory system.Finding more and more research is proving this, so I’m telling the secret to get more of these good bacteria and they’re called probiotics and the specific type of oral probiotics.So there are, you, may have taken or heard of probiotics for digestive health could be in a pill form or in the different types of yogurt or supplements, and those are good for our digestive system.But an oral product is different.

Oral Probiotics Can Cure bad breath

It’S specially formulated with the bacteria that we need in our mouth and usually you chew these up or they’re in a powder form that you put in your mouth and they dissolve and release lots of the good bacteria.So, if you’re having problems with bad breath, if you have problems, gum disease or every time you go to the dentist, you feel like you have cavities, you should look into an oral probiotic.I’Ve been watching these for about six or seven years and right now, I’m finding there are more and more great studies coming out proving how well these work.If you’d, like some more information, you can click on the link below you can get touch with me or read some more on our website hope this helps and, as you start to use a probiotic as part of your home hygiene regimen, you should have a healthier Mouth, you should feel better and be being more disease-free, and if you keep up with it, you can cure that bad breath.Thanks for watching

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