Healthy Aging Archives

Acne, Antibiotics and Your Bones

Children’s Health, Drug interactions, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Acne, Antibiotics and Your Bones

The human body develops as much as 40 percent of its peak bone mass during our teenage years, and at the same time our microbiome matures.

For many teens, those puberty years are often plagued with raging hormones leading to problems with acne.

When over-the-counter skin care products don’t do the job, often, dermatologists recommend prescription-strength creams in combination with an antibiotic.

Fortunately, most health experts recognize the damage antibiotics can do to deplete the beneficial bacteria in the human gut, especially when antibiotics are taken for extended periods of time.

What happens to a teenager’s health when dermatologists prescribe antibiotics for as long as two years?

The damage goes way beyond the human gut and may affect the development of a teenager’s bones as they mature, according to research appearing in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Here’s how…

Getting To The Gut

Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina had previously conducted a study that showed how high doses of antibiotics triggered an inflammatory response that impaired the maturation of bones and increased the activity of osteoclasts that break down bone tissue.

These previous results led this team to study the effect one dose of a common antibiotic — minocycline, a member of the tetracycline class of drugs — would have on the bone growth of mice at a similar age as humans during puberty (6-12 weeks old).

Three concerning takeaways that affect gut health:

Mice didn’t experience an inflammatory response as before, but the presence of an antibiotic changed the healthy mix of gut bacteria that triggered a decrease in bone mass and affected how their skeletons matured.
The long-term use of antibiotics prevented the tiny microbiomes and skeletons of mice from recovering to a stable state even after the antibiotics were stopped.
Not only did the presence of an antibiotic disrupt the composition of gut bacteria, it also affected the way the liver communicates to the small intestine via bile acids, triggering significant decreases in the formation of bones.

Probiotic Protection

While antibiotics still remain one of the go-to treatments for acne, health organizations like the American Academy of Dermatology recommend taking them for the shortest effective duration to prevent future problems with antibiotic resistance.

However, if you really need to take an antibiotic, a recent report we shared with you points to evidence that taking a probiotic can be effective for treating acne as well as protecting the health of your gut.

To get the protection you need, be sure that any probiotic you take is formulated with multiple and proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families like the healthy mix contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

The Journal of Clinical Investigation

Medical University of South Carolina

American Academy of Dermatology

Mayo Clinic

Reduce Inflammation With Multi-Strain Probiotics

Diet, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Reduce Inflammation With Multi-Strain Probiotics

If you’ve experienced a cut, low-grade fever or a broken toe, you know what inflammation feels like.

Inflammation is a very necessary signal from your body’s immune system in the form of pain, warmth, swelling or redness that lets you know healing is on the way. Fortunately, much of the inflammation our bodies experience is acute and gets resolved pretty quickly.

However, chronic inflammation is a much more serious problem that can be triggered in the very same ways, but it often doesn’t go away, even after the initial problem gets resolved.

The real challenge, especially for seniors, is preventing chronic inflammation, and there’s many lifestyle modifications you can make to lower your risks.

Maintaining a healthy weight.
Managing your stress.
Eating a healthier diet.
Making time for exercise.
More relaxing sleep.

Adding a multi-strain probiotic and an omega-3 supplement (with vitamin D) every day to your anti-inflammatory to-do list may help too, according to a recent study appearing in Nutrients.

Curbing Chronic Inflammation

A team of European scientists were eager to study simple, non-drug ways to curb the effects of inflammaging, a chronic, low-grade form of inflammation that develops as seniors age, increasing their risks of health problems.

Over the course of eight weeks, researchers tracked the health of 76 elderly patients (ages 65-80) who took placebos or a multi-strain probiotic containing Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus acidophilus, along with an omega-3 supplement (consisting of fish oils and vitamin D).

(These probiotic strains tested in this trial are among the 10 featured in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic for adults.)

The benefit for seniors battling inflammation came from an upward trend in levels of the anti-inflammatory chemical cytokine IL-10 and a big increase in beneficial short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) among patients taking the multi-strain probiotic/omega-3 combo.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about the benefits of fish oil when taken with a multi-strain probiotic like EndoMune, fortified to maintain and protect your immune system by increasing the good bacteria in your gut.

Resources

Nutrients

Nutra Ingredients.com

WebMD

Cleveland Clinic

Harvard Health Publishing

Middle aged man holding bag of groceries overstuffed with produce

How Men Can Avoid the Colon Cancer “Diet”

Diet, Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

How Men Can Avoid the Colon Cancer “Diet”

There’s no doubt in the world that one of the easiest things you can do to protect your health and avoid serious disease — eating a nutrient-dense diet packed with lots of unprocessed whole foods, fiber and natural sugars — is one of the best things too.

Unfortunately, we see the old adage, You are what you eat!, play out every day in rising mortality rates on a global scale due to poor diets than smoking and car accidents.

A recent study appearing in The BMJ underscores the risk of poor diets, concluding that men raise their risk of developing colon cancer by 29 percent just by eating highly processed foods.

Rising Rates of Colon Cancer

You’ve probably read similar reports we have about the rising rates of colon cancer, leading scientists to predict it will become the leading cause of death for patients under age 50 by the end of this decade.

Researchers at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy already had assumed diet was a major contributor in a colon cancer diagnosis, but who was more vulnerable and why.

Scientists reviewed data from more than 205,000 patients across three large studies that tracked dietary intake along with how often people consumed a list of some 130 foods for more than 25 years.

During that time, men were far more susceptible to colon cancer than women, largely due to eating diets full of highly processed meats, poultry, pork and fish, ready-to-eat meals and sugar-sweetened drinks.

These results led researchers to consider the possibility that other factors could be responsible for rising colon cancer risks among men, like the role food additives play in harming the balance of bacteria in the gut and promoting inflammation.

Reduce Your Colon Cancer Risks

Eating a healthier, fiber-rich diet made up of fewer highly processed meats along with incorporating some movement into your daily routine will go a long way toward reducing your colon cancer risks. However, we recommend adding a couple of things to your to-do list.

For one, get screened for colon cancer as soon as you’re able. Although the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended lowering the age for a first screening to age 45 last year, if you have a family history of colon cancer take the initiative and do it sooner.

Also, given what we already know about the health-harming use of antibiotics and their effect on raising your colon cancer risks, we recommend taking a daily probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria and a proven prebiotic (that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut).

You can get the protection you need with the proprietary blend of 10 proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and the prebiotic FOS contained in each serving of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Tufts Now

The BMJ

People

The Aging Gut 101

Diet, Disease, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

The Aging Gut 101: Healthy Aging, Healthy Gut

“Does my gut age just like the rest of me?”

We get this question a lot, especially from older folks who are starting to understand the connection between the gut and their health in ways that matter directly to them, like maintaining their bones and preserving their cognitive skills.

The simple answer: The composition of bacteria in your gut evolves with time just like your body. Your microbiome develops rapidly from infancy to age 3, stabilizes through middle age, then changes rapidly later in life, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Those changes can be a good thing. In fact, the more your gut bacteria evolves as you age, the better your overall health may be, based on recent research appearing in Nature Metabolism.

Your Evolving Gut

This study compared a wealth of data on human health along with gut microbiome genetic sequencing data on more than 9,000 patients ranging from ages 18-101.

However, the real focus of the research team (led by scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology) was a subset of more than 900 older patients (ages 78-98) to better understand the makeup of their microbiomes and how they matched up with their overall health.

To the good, older adults whose microbiomes kept evolving enjoyed better overall health, as evidenced by lower levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, higher vitamin D levels and more beneficial blood metabolites produced by the gut (including one that reduced inflammation and extended lives in previous animal studies).

Not only did those with more unique microbiomes feel better, they experienced greater overall mobility and could walk faster than their peers whose gut health didn’t change as much with age.

To the bad, patients with less diverse microbiomes took more medications and were nearly twice as likely to die during the course of the study.

Scientists also learned that microbiome uniqueness was more prevalent among women, which may go a long way toward explaining why women often outlive men…

Your Diet Matters

So, what drives microbial evolution and longevity among seniors? The healthiest patients with the most dramatic shifts in their microbiomes experienced steep drops in Bacteroides, a species commonly found in people who eat more processed foods and far less fiber.

When patients eat less fiber, the Bacteroides in their guts have little to eat which can trigger an immune response leading to chronic inflammation and an array of age-related conditions from arthritis to heart disease.

These results certainly mirror previous articles we’ve shared about the many health benefits of dietary fiber, especially if you want to maintain a resilient, healthy gut microbiome that evolves as you age.

How much fiber your body needs every day to maintain optimal health depends on your gender — men need a bit more (31-38 grams) than women (21-25 grams) — and the quality of your diet.

Are You Taking A Probiotic?

If you’re having challenges getting enough fiber, taking a daily probiotic formulated with proven strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic can do a lot of good.

Taking a probiotic with a prebiotic may also reduce low-grade inflammation. This was the key finding in a recent review of studies appearing in Nutrients.

One of the real benefits of taking a probiotic comes from the production of butyrate (short-chain fatty acids created when your gut digests soluble fiber) that reduces chronic low-grade inflammation in your gut.

If you’ve been looking for a good probiotic, find one with multiple strains of beneficial and proven bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families plus a prebiotic that feeds the good guys in your gut, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

National Institute on Aging

Nature Metabolism

New York Times

Gut Microbiota For Health

Nutrients

Nutraingredients Asia

Vector graphic of a large intestine next to a magnifying glass hovering a vector image of the coronavirus molecular structure. Text reads "Long Covid: Gut bacteria (Im)balances May Affect Your Risk

The Connection Between Gut Health and Long Covid

Disease, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Long COVID: Gut Bacteria (Im)Balances May Affect Your Risks

Although most patients who contract the coronavirus recover within weeks, some COVID symptoms persist for some people long after an initial bout with the disease.

A study appearing late last year in Nature Communications estimates about 7 percent of patients infected with COVID-19 experienced at least one Long COVID symptom six months later.

Common symptoms of Long COVID include:

Shortness of breath
Joint and chest pain
Cognitive challenges
Fatigue and brain fog
Insomnia

As time goes on, the more modern medical science is learning how the gut plays an increasingly important role in protecting or harming your health.

So far, we’re seen how some key variables come into play with COVID-19 in relation to your microbiome, like how you manage your diet and stress levels which help you maintain a healthy balance of gut bacteria.

Failing to protect a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut may also increase your risks of developing Long COVID many months after your initial run-in with the coronavirus, according to a recent report in the medical journal, Gut.

Gut Dysbiosis And Long COVID

A group of Chinese researchers examined the gut health of 106 COVID patients hospitalized over a six-month period in 2020 to 68 healthy patients by using stool samples to monitor any links to Long COVID.

More than three-quarters of patients participating in the study reported symptoms of Long COVID, with fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, anxiety and sleep problems among the most common challenges at the six-month mark.

Yet, despite no significant differences in common risk factors (age, pre-existing conditions or the use of antibiotics), a majority who suffered from Long COVID symptoms a half-year later experienced gut dysbiosis, meaning they had a less diverse mix of gut bacteria.

In fact, the overall makeup of gut bacteria among patients with Long COVID included 81 harmful species. For example, some harmful species from the Streptococcus and Clostridium families were linked to persistent respiratory problems.

Overall, the gut microbiomes of sick patients who didn’t develop Long COVID were similar to those who never contracted COVID at all.

What You Can Do

For the foreseeable future, Long COVID is here to stay and scientists are searching for answers. However, there are steps you can take to protect and strengthen your immune health and make that run-in with COVID a shorter, more uneventful one if it happens.

We already know that the lack of balance in the gut microbiome for COVID patients is a real problem and how these imbalances can show up in your blood. What’s more, just like the previous study, the depletion of key bacterial species associated with boosting immunity really matters.

For starters, cleaning up your diet (cutting out the sugar), starting some form of daily movement and working on a better sleep schedule can do a lot of good.

One more important thing you can do to give your immune system a direct boost: Take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, uniquely fortified with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families.

Resources

Nature Communications

Photograph of infant holding mother's thumb. Text reads "Protect Your Baby's Gut Health from Allergies

The Link Between Childhood Allergies And Gut Health

Children’s Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Protect Your Baby’s Gut Health From Allergies

Building great gut health starts with a solid foundation. For a new mom, that’s making gut-smart choices like breastfeeding her new baby for as long as she can and doing her best to avoid a c-section birth.

Doing those two things can go a long way toward developing a diverse, balanced microbiome that protects your child from persistent health issues like allergies as he/she grows up.

Unfortunately, c-section rates remain high for new moms (even for those first-time moms with low-risk births) and breastfeeding numbers drop sharply after 6 months, according to numbers collected by the CDC.

So, we shouldn’t be surprised that childhood allergies are also on the rise due to a lack of diversity in gut bacteria, according to a pair of reports.

Gut Bacteria Imbalances

The findings of the two studies, appearing recently in Nature Communications and Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, mirrored each other in one important way: The balance of bacteria determined a child’s susceptibility to food or respiratory allergies.

For example, Italian researchers in the Nature study identified specific microbial signatures that stood out due to their higher inflammatory potential (thanks to an uptick in the production of pro-inflammatory molecules) and depleted levels of beneficial bacteria in fecal samples taken from allergic kids compared to healthy ones.

Overall, less than a third of the children with food allergies developed a healthy immunity to problematic foods like cow’s milk, eggs, nuts, or fruit by the end of a three-year monitoring period.

These same challenges with the lack of microbial diversity were very evident in the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology study over an extended five-year time-frame too.

Based on stool samples taken from children ages 3-5, patients with allergies had far less diverse microbiomes than healthy kids, especially among young patients sensitive to peanuts and milk.

A Probiotic Solution

Although there were no mentions in either study about breastfeeding or natural childbirth, based on previous reports we’ve shared, we know both have a positive impact on reducing your child’s chances of food or respiratory allergies.

Not to mention, feeding your baby formula exclusively has been found to increase the incidence of respiratory problems and asthma significantly.

Unfortunately, more than a few new moms may not have the option of having natural childbirth or breastfeeding, so what do you do?

You may want to consider giving your baby a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Junior Advanced Powder that contains four basic building blocks of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families, along with a prebiotic (FOS) that feeds the good guys in her/his developing gut.

But, before starting your baby on EndoMune Junior in its powdered form or its Chewable berry-flavored tablet, please check in with your pediatrician.

Resources

Pediatric Allergy Immunology

Medscape

Nature Communications

Microbiome Post.com

Illustration of a gut, a heart, and a brain all connected by a dotted line. Text: The Gut's connection to stroke

The Gut Connection to Stroke

Diet, Disease, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

The Gut Connection to Stroke

Many of you know about the connection between poor diets rich in fats, red meat and processed foods and the cluster of problems that trigger metabolic syndrome.

Conditions such as high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and extra body weight around the waist are manageable on their own. That is, until they manifest as a group leading to metabolic syndrome.

When they do, your risks of even more serious cardiovascular problems, like stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, escalate dramatically.

Did you know the gut has a direct connection to metabolic syndrome and poor cardiovascular health? This may increase your chances of a severe stroke and other serious health problems afterward?

Here’s how…

The TMAO Problem

When we consume foods or drinks high in choline (red meat, eggs, high-fat dairy products) and L-carnitine (red meat and some energy drinks), our gut bacteria breaks them down into trimethylamine (TMA).

Then, TMA is converted by the liver to TMAO (trimethylene N-oxide), a metabolite that has been linked to the narrowing or obstruction of arteries and increases in blood clots, leading to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have spent more than a decade examining how the gut microbiome affects our cardiovascular health with findings that have yielded significant insights about TMAO.

A recent Cleveland Clinic study determined the dual presence of elevated TMAO and choline was enough to produce, not only strokes of greater size and severity, but more challenging post-stroke functional impairments.

Scientists came to these conclusions after transplanting fecal samples from human patients with high or low levels of TMAO into germ-free mice.

Over the course of the study, animals receiving fecal transplants with higher levels of TMAO had more of it in their bloodstreams and experienced more extensive brain damage in multiple stroke models as well as greater post-stroke motor and cognitive deficits.

What’s more, the presence of bacteria containing CutC, a key enzyme related to choline that drives TMAO production in the gut, was enough to more than double stroke severity and worsened functional outcomes by as much as 30 percent.

What You Can Do About It

Based on our previous article about the problems associated with the Paleo Diet, a diet focused on more meat or Western diet staples like highly processed foods, creates the ideal environment for bad gut bacteria that generate unhealthy amounts of TMAO and lessen the impact of beneficial bacteria.

Fortunately, there’s some easy steps you can take to protect your gut and cardiovascular health from harm. For starters, increasing your intake of dietary fiber by just 1 ounce (30 grams) in your diet can help you lose weight and reduce your cardio risks.

Besides adding more fiber to your diet, taking a probiotic fortified with multiple strains of beneficial and proven bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, can do a great deal of good to promote the natural fermentation process that protects your gut.

References

Cell Host & Microbe

Cleveland Clinic/Consult QD

Cleveland HeartLab

SelfDecode

Mayo Clinic

Healthy Sleep, Healthy Gut

Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

A good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. In fact, many health experts view sleep as a way your body “reboots,” much like a computer, to repair and restore itself from the stresses of the day.

Previously, we’ve talked about how disrupting your sleep-wake schedule — better known as your body’s circadian clock — not only steals time your body needs to replenish and restore its resources, it harms the health of your gut microbiome too.

But how?

Good Sleep, Good Gut Diversity

Researchers from Nova Southeastern University and Middle Tennessee State took on the job of finding gut health connections to sleep with the help of 26 healthy patients.

Over 30 days, patients were monitored 24/7 for their sleep-wake activity (by wearing smart watches), took tests to measure their cognitive skills in eight areas and provided saliva and fecal samples.

No surprise, sleep quality and total sleep time yielded significant benefits for patients related to the diversity of species and richness of their microbiomes, while fragmented sleep patterns affected overall sleep quality and gut health adversely.

On the cognitive side, the gut health/good sleep connection stood out in a few measures including abstract matching, while a lack of richness was linked to poorer risk decision-making.

Scientists also found increased levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) that were linked to total sleep time and positive impacts on diversity and richness of the gut microbiome.

The Take-Home Message

On the surface, getting more sleep along with the quality and time you devote to it goes a long way towards the health of your gut, and thus, your overall health.

Also, following good hygiene before you go to sleep by taking simple steps — maintaining a consistent sleep routine and turning off your phone, laptop computer or tablet about an hour before you turn off the lights — can help.

Health experts also believe taking a probiotic along with a prebiotic may do lots of good, not only to promote better more restful sleep, but to protect the rich diversity of bacteria in your gut as well. But not just any probiotic will do…

Be sure to look for a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families that mirror the diversity of bacteria in your gut, plus a prebiotic that feeds the “good guys” in your gut, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

References

Does a Healthy Gut-Brain Axis Make You Wiser?

Healthy Aging, Mental Health / By @drHoberman

Not so long ago, medicine debated the existence of the gut-brain axis, the connections that link to and influence your brain, emotions and gut microbiome. It’s hard to dispute that link now, given that about 90 percent of your body’s serotonin, a chemical that works as a brain transmitter, is generated by bacteria in the human gut. Many of us have been more in touch with our gut-brain axis than ever before during the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We know our gut-brain axis is working when we make those decisions that create butterflies in our stomachs, but could other emotions be telling us everything is working smoothly as it should?

The less lonely gut microbiome

Multiple studies have shown a relationship between the levels of wisdom (more happiness and life satisfaction) and loneliness. For example, the wiser a person is the less lonely they feel, and vice versa.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine recently took this connection between loneliness and wisdom a step further to a gut level in a study appearing in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

UCSD researchers examined the gut health (through fecal samples) and mental health scores of 187 patients ranging in age from 28-97.

Overall, greater levels of wisdom, social support, compassion and engagement were linked to healthier gut microbiomes.

Conversely, a reduced gut diversity was seen in patients, who were more vulnerable to loneliness, particularly older folks who may be more susceptible to health-related consequences, and some of them could lead to death too.

The gut-brain axis in action

What UCSD researchers described in their results points to the gut-brain-axis in action, with the diversity of gut bacteria being the key factor.

The microbial diversity of your gut is critical to so many different parts of your health. Something as simple as eating a Western diet full of high-fat diets and sugar can be a real problem.

Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to repair and protect the health of your gut and brain right now.

Clean up your diet, which may be more statistically beneficial to your overall health than giving up smoking.
Get the right amount of sleep every day
Step up your game with exercise.
Take a probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families plus a proven prebiotic (FOS) that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut.

References

Coffee, Chronic Disease and Your Gut

Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear news about the next “best” food for your gut. Here at EndoMune, we keep up with these developments pretty regularly because you never know when a patient will ask us, Is this really true? Well, a patient quizzed us recently about the benefits of drinking coffee related to the gut, so we did some research. You may be surprised about the answer.

Does coffee drinking matter?

Curious about the benefits of coffee consumption, scientists at Baylor College of Medicine analyzed the gut health of 34 patients in a unique way by collecting several colon biopsies during their colonoscopies.

Patients also answered questionnaires that determined if they drank coffee containing more or less than 82.9 milligrams of caffeine per day. (The average 8-ounce cup contains 95 milligrams.)

Based on the health of colon samples and self-reported coffee consumption, patients who downed at least two cups of coffee every day had healthier gut microbiomes than those who drank less than that or none at all.

Heavy coffee drinkers had more diverse gut bacteria, and it was more evenly distributed in the large intestine. Additionally, the guts of heavy coffee drinkers were less likely to contain a strain of bacteria linked to obesity and metabolic problems (Erysipelatoclostridium).

Just because you CAN drink coffee…

Some experts believe coffee can make a gut-healthy difference thanks to the polyphenols and antioxidants it contains, just as they do in plant foods.

What about the side effects of drinking too much coffee?

Just as we reminded you often about foods celebrated for their “probiotic” benefits — walnuts, almonds, and dark chocolate — it’s all about moderation.

Overdoing it on coffee, with its high acid content, can lead to more gut health problems (heartburn and IBS) than benefits.

The best advice I can give you: Your gut must be healthy first before you can take advantage of any small benefits coffee or any other food may provide.

One of the most important things you can do to improve your gut health right now is taking a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

Our multi-strain probiotic, EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, is uniquely fortified with ten strains of beneficial bacteria and 30 billion CFUs plus a proven prebiotic (FOS) that does the dirty work behind the scenes to feed the good bacteria living in your gut.

References