high-fat diet Archives

Prescription medicine + donuts = higher IBD risks

Antibiotics + High-Fat Diet = Higher IBD Risks

Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Whenever we talk about antibiotics, the subject always comes around to the same health challenge…Do you rely on antibiotics to “cure” common health problems that would probably get resolved on their own? And, do you pressure your family physician into prescribing you an antibiotic you may not need?

When you rely on antibiotics too often, they may eventually stop working, especially when you need them to.

So, would you make a different decision about taking an antibiotic if doing so made you much more vulnerable to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?

Multiple risk factors

An international team of researchers conducted a two-part study, first analyzing fecal samples of 92 patients, including 49 suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), to measure fecal calprotectin, a biomarker for intestinal inflammation. Elevated levels of this biomarker, considered a pre-IBD biomarker, were discovered in 19 IBS patients. But that’s not the key takeaway…

Patients who had a recent history of taking antibiotics plus eating a high-fat diet regularly elevated their risks of pre-IBD problems by a factor of 9, compared to those who ate a healthier diet, and had no recent history of antibiotic use.

Considering these risks separately, a patient’s pre-IBD probabilities fell, but not as much as you’d expect, especially with the presence of antibiotics elevating pre-IBD by nearly 4 times compared to high-fat diets alone (nearly 3 times).

Scientists also discovered why antibiotics and high-fat diets create so many problems by analyzing a group of mouse models: Their presence disrupts the work of the mitochondria in the cells that line the intestines to consume oxygen. Those disruptions may evolve into more serious problems in which healthy gut bacteria gets replaced by more harmful bacteria, leading to inflammation and possible pre-IBD symptoms.

So what can you do to stay healthy and possibly stay out of the way of IBD?

It’s all about moderation

This study really drives home a very important point: The foods you eat and the medications you take — especially antibiotics — can work for or against you. Moderation is the critical take-home message here. Eating some fat is good and important, and indulging on occasion is fine, but not all the time!

The same applies to antibiotics. If your family doctor recommends an antibiotic, be sure to ask lots of questions about how and when to take them. (Don’t skip doses or stop taking them early if you feel better.)

For all of the good antibiotics can do, they also deplete the beneficial bacteria in your gut that keeps your immune system strong. When you need to take an antibiotic and protect your gut health, be sure to take a probiotic two hours before to give those beneficial bacteria a head start.

Read our latest advisory on how to get the best out of taking a probiotic here!

When you’re looking for a probiotic, you should strongly consider one formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria that provide proven results like those from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families.

And, when you’re reading product labels, be sure to look for a prebiotic, the guys that do the dirty work behind the scenes by feeding the good bacteria living in your gut. Some probiotics don’t have them!

Fortunately, our multi-strain probiotic, EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, is uniquely fortified with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria, plus a proven prebiotic (FOS) to protect your gut.

References

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Protect Your Gut From Fatty Holiday Foods

Diet, Digestive Health, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Many of us can’t wait for the end of the year, if for no other reason than to satisfy our year-round cravings for eggnog, prime rib, dressing, pecan pie and other fatty holiday foods.

Eating those holiday foods in excess as many of us do during the season comes with an unhealthy price to pay in adding extra pounds, not to mention harming our gut.

A recent study featured in Cell Reports goes a long way toward describing how the gut may predict the damage you do to your body merely by eating excessive amounts of high-fat foods.

High-fat diets: No ho, ho, ho!

Previous studies have found that people eating the same high-fat diets — the major culprit in an array of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and stroke — react differently. Some may suffer from less or more problems than others.

Researchers fed genetically similar mice healthy foods and screened urine samples for compounds produced by their gut bacteria, establishing a baseline of healthy chemical profiles.

Once those same lab animals were switched to fatty foods, their tiny bodies reacted just like their human counterparts, with some becoming less tolerant to glucose (an early sign of diabetes) while others gained more weight.

Follow-up analyses of urine samples taken from mice after feeding them fatty foods changed too, predicting signs of unhealthy changes in weight, glucose and behavior.

In fact, the presence of one very popular chemical produced by the gut — trimethylene n-oxide (TMAO) — was a sign of glucose issues, not to mention heart disease.

“We tend to believe that obesity is caused by bad genes or by bad genes interacting with bad environment,” says Dr. Dominique Gauguier, a senior investigator on this study based in Paris, according to a press release.

“Our findings indicate that an organism’s gut microbiome can drive the adaptation to dietary challenges in the absence of genetic variation.”

These results are only the beginning, as researchers plan to embark on a larger, more in-depth clinical trial on 2,000 human patients that will go further toward forecasting how people react to differing diets and how gut health drives their overall health.

The long-term goal: Generating chemical profiles from urine and blood samples that may offer guidance on what diets are most supportive for a patient’s optimal health.

Until that comes…

What we do know right now is that maintaining a healthy balance of beneficial gut bacteria is critical in protecting your body from cardiovascular diseases like diabetes, based on the findings of a Danish study we’ve discussed previously.

That same study also found that patients who had less diverse gut microbiomes carried more fat on their bodies and experienced more inflammation in their digestive tracts, making them more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases.

The holiday season is full of gatherings with friends, family and lots of fatty seasonal foods that can add inches and pounds to your waistline and disrupt the diversity of your gut in no time if you overindulge too often.

Keeping your portion sizes small and eating healthier foods rich in fiber can do a lot of good for your body and keep off those extra pounds.

Taking a multi-species probiotic, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic with 10 distinct species of beneficial bacteria, can also go a long way toward protecting the diversity of your gut and your overall health too.

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Could a high-fat diet harm your gut-brain axis?

Diet, Mental Health / By @drHoberman

Choosing high-fat foods impacts your physical health, making you more vulnerable to obesity, diabetes and a host of other issues related to metabolic syndrome. The biological connection that links your intestines, brain and emotions as one — better known as the gut-brain axis — may be harmed too.

Although researchers at Louisiana State University didn’t specifically mention the gut-brain axis in their recently published study in Biological Psychiatry, the implication was certainly present in the results. They concluded that eating a high-fat diet may increase your risks for behavioral problems, including depression.

Scientists tested their theory by transplanting gut bacteria of mice, fed either a high-fat diet or a control diet, into non-obese adult mice. The mice were then evaluated for signs of behavioral changes.

The mice exposed to gut bacteria fed by a high-fat diet displayed numerous changes, both mentally and physically.

On the mental health side, the mice experienced impaired memory, greater anxiety and repetitive behaviors. Physically, the mice displayed signs of inflammation and increased intestinal permeability.

According to researchers, the connection between the gut-brain axis, behavioral disruptions, and high-fat diets could also indicate inflammation in the brain.

“This paper suggests that high-fat diets impair brain health, in part, by disrupting the symbiotic relationship between humans and the microorganisms that occupy our gastrointestinal tracts,” Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, commented in a press release.

Fortunately, probiotics can help prevent the negative effect of a high-fat diet.

How probiotics can help

Unfortunately, high-fat diets are just one variable that disrupts the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut. Relying too often on antibiotics can be a big problem, leaving you vulnerable to hazardous infections like Clostridium difficile, which can be severe and, on occasion, deadly.

Protecting the diversity of your gut bacteria can be tricky with our hectic lifestyles that encourage us to eat high-fat, high-calorie meals because they are quick and simple.

Spending a little more time every day to eat a healthier diet richer in fiber and cutting out extra calories does your body a world of good.

Taking a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic that contains 10 different strains of beneficial bacteria plus the prebiotic FOS (fructooligosaccharide) can be the boost your health needs to protect your gut and brain.

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