The question that got me started down this rabbit-hole was an article about the complexities of maintaining our fecal microbiome. That is, maintaining a stable ecosystem of fecal bacteria (mostly).
The human microbiome has been implicated in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn's Disease, Obesity, Autism, Bowel and Rectal Cancer....Flatulence, Strokes....and on, and on, and on.
It isn't enough to eat a spoonful of yogurt every day. That is like throwing a handful of seeds into the yard and expecting to harvest a field of wheat.
This peer-reviewed article looks at some of the factors that impact bacterial recolonization of material entering the ascending colon from the small-intestine.
Here are the "images" from the article:
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| Dashed lines indicate "typical" flow velocities and mixing rates in the ascending colon |
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| Data gathered by radio-isotopes injected into the large colons of test subjects. Lines are curve-fits with red line being the mean. The data shows a very wide distribution and does not show a bell-shaped distribution. |
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| Graphic illustrating mechanisms in play. Material entering the large bowel is very soupy and the volume at the exit is (typically) is reduced to 1/5th the entering volume by way of water removal. |
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| The ellipse encloses the range of measurements of people who characterized themselves as "healthy" |
Among the factors NOT considered in this study were fiber particle size and the mixing from exercise.
Some of us experience more dental issues as we age and we don't chew our food as thoroughly as we did/could as when we were younger. Bacteria can only access the particle from its exposed surface, so even if there was "plenty" of fiber from a mass standpoint, if the particles are large then those nutrients are not very accessible to the various bacteria in our guts.
Another thing that can happen as we age is that we sit in our recliners as we eat while we watch TV and we don't pay attention to what is in our mouth. It is reasonable to hypothesize that we might not chew our food as much when we are distracted.
Another thing that has changed in the last sixty years is that nearly everybody has a "recliner" or La-Z-Boy or Barka lounger. They used to be called "invalid chairs" but now they are very, very common even for able-bodied people.
Sitting in a recliner lulls our core, stability muscles to inaction. Continuing the hypothesis, the inaction of those muscles slows the passage of food through our guts and also throws the entire burden of ascending-bowel content mixing upon the spasming of the lower-bowel walls.
These conditions are very different from the conditions our bodies were designed for (or evolved under) and it should not be surprising if we get suboptimal performance from them.
Where is the medical science?
Where is the money?
Most of the science seems to be directed at looking for the BEST strains of bacteria to load into fecal transplants. Those strains could then be patented and turned into income-streams.
There is no money to be made in coaching people to eat a balanced diet (adding vegetable fiber if you are eating a meat-centric diet), getting dental work done if indicated, turning off the TV, sitting at the table, chewing your food and taking a walk optimally timed to speed up the slinky of incoming food through the processes.
You highlight the crux of the problem.
ReplyDeletePrescribing lifestyle changes that actually work looses a customer and you only get to charge them once for the advice.
If you prescribe a maintenance drug, even if its a placebo, you have re-curing visits, follow ups, labs, phone consults, adjustments followed by additional labs.
This in a nutshell is the problem w/ the medical industry. They're not trying to make you healthier, none of them. They don't know how. They're taught in medical school to treat symptoms, not causes, so their minds don't work at solving the problem, but treating it.
I had this experience w/ doctors who kept putting me on PPI's (Prilosec, Zantac, etc.) Half dozen of them over 20+ years, just kept switching up the pills: Here, try this one.
Stopped stressing, improved my diet, don't need the pills anymore. I found that on Joe Rogan podcast.
I spend 1500/mo. on insurance, 50 bucks on co-pays to walk in the door, and 20 dollars for a months worth of pills. Multiply me by how many Americans? That's a lot of money sloshing around!
I don't even have a spotify account....
It's about the money. The medical industry is scamming everyone for the money, just like every other industry.
After my lung issues, I stopped being as mobile. I chug like a loaded freight train when I walk very far. But I sit upright, no recliner. I work at whatever I need to... in spurts. When I need to rest, I take 5 or 15 or whatever it takes to recharge and go again. I don't eat near like I did. Just decreased the amount, not the variety. I've lost weight that way, and my innards process everything pretty well. There is an odor that I identified that tells me when my gut is working at it's best. And it's rare I don't catch a whiff. Antibiotics usually wreak havoc for their run plus a week. But I don't add all kinds of probiotics or sour milk to overcome it. Just keep on, and it settles back to baseline. The problem is, everyone is an individual. Some run best on ethel, some work okay on drip gas. Find what works.
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