Although I no longer breakout with this diet, I discovered that food combination is essential for proper digestion as well.

For example, eating a fruit and a meat, the enzyme will most likely digest what has a higher ph and leave the rest to rot in the gut, not to mention you get a stomach ache.

 

I was JUST gonna post something on this. I've fruitlessly been trying to pinpoint my "allergies" and I've been quite unsuccessful. It seems that "sometimes" things hurt my stomach and break me out and other times I'm fine. I do think this is for many reasons but I've been doing a lot of researching on food combining and it makes a whole lot of sense. Anybody have any more tips or specific info on this? I'm excited to see how it works for me.

Ive been following this diet for the past week after having a terrible digestive problems from overeating on mexican /mexican chips I was moments away from going to dr but dropped all sugar/fruits and have been eating meat/vegetables, probiotic yogurt but am having trouble keepng weight on now its funny because it used to be the reverse. Any reccomendations for food or meals to get amount of calories needed. also I have been ph testing and am very acidic any reccomendations on staying alkaline on this diet

Although I no longer breakout with this diet, I discovered that food combination is essential for proper digestion as well.

For example, eating a fruit and a meat, the enzyme will most likely digest what has a higher ph and leave the rest to rot in the gut, not to mention you get a stomach ache.

 

I was JUST gonna post something on this. I've fruitlessly been trying to pinpoint my "allergies" and I've been quite unsuccessful. It seems that "sometimes" things hurt my stomach and break me out and other times I'm fine. I do think this is for many reasons but I've been doing a lot of researching on food combining and it makes a whole lot of sense. Anybody have any more tips or specific info on this? I'm excited to see how it works for me.

 

I've done an experiement on myself few days ago, and realized a lot.

I don't have digestive problems with just eating eggs, or just eating bananas or other fruits, but consuming one before eating the other I noticed some moderate stomach ache, and for the first time in a month had a big pimple. It was more of a painful bump, not a cystic acne. I think I can classify pimples into 3 categories, depending on the amount of time they take to heal, and their property. .

Although I no longer breakout with this diet, I discovered that food combination is essential for proper digestion as well.

For example, eating a fruit and a meat, the enzyme will most likely digest what has a higher ph and leave the rest to rot in the gut, not to mention you get a stomach ache.

 

I was JUST gonna post something on this. I've fruitlessly been trying to pinpoint my "allergies" and I've been quite unsuccessful. It seems that "sometimes" things hurt my stomach and break me out and other times I'm fine. I do think this is for many reasons but I've been doing a lot of researching on food combining and it makes a whole lot of sense. Anybody have any more tips or specific info on this? I'm excited to see how it works for me.

 

I've done an experiement on myself few days ago, and realized a lot.

I don't have digestive problems with just eating eggs, or just eating bananas or other fruits, but consuming one before eating the other I noticed some moderate stomach ache, and for the first time in a month had a big pimple. It was more of a painful bump, not a cystic acne. I think I can classify pimples into 3 categories, depending on the amount of time they take to heal, and their property. .

 

Well, there's a lot of websites out there claiming that food combing is a myth. But- it makes sense to me and I read many stories of people having success. I tried this today and I noticed no itching on my face or digestive pain or symptoms and that's rare. I even drank (warm water) with my meals. I did get a headache but I actually think its because I restricted my calories quite a bit today. So far so good. A few nights ago- I ate a panera salad (seems healthy enough, right?) with dried apple chips, a sugary apple dressing, lettuce, soft cheese and cranberries. I had the worst burning and stomach pains. But the salad completely broke the rules of food combining. I woke up the next day with 3 new pimples. Fabulous. Well- I hope there's somethin to this good luck to you. OH- and remember- bananas are a sweet fruit and shouldn't be combined with acid fruits like berries- or other fruit like melons! 😀

White Fox can you answer question if knowledagable about saliva/urine ph. After incorporating this diet going on a week mostly meat and vegetables. My urine ph has been very acidic (4.5) looking online says that is dangerous and breeds disease. What would be the best reccomendation to stick with this diet and still be healthy acidiosis wise?

Two questions:

1) What are your stress levels like?

2) How much greens/fruits/vegetables are you eating compared to meat/dairy?

1) stress was/is pretty high working in customer service and still doing multitasking at that with other ventures but I have been trying to stay stress free and not let it get to me lately.

2) I was eating about 60% meat/ 40% vegetables trying to stick with the diet but after looking further on the diet and other sources im now making sure its about 60% vegetables/40% meat

Yeah that's definitely too much meat. I eat probably 10-20% proteins and the rest fruits and vegetables. A lot of the vegetable matter being fermented veggies.

But stress is the HUGEST factor! I understand that now. I think stress matters far more than diet.

Thanks for the quick response. I also found on this diet eliminating sugar/grains its very hard to get daily calories to maintain or gain weight. I'm now a 6'1 male at 155 and definitely dont want to lose any more any advice on how to work this diet doing 10-20% meat and still keep weight? The veggies barely have any calories at all so does that mean it needs to be a whollllleeeee lot of extra vegetables to get balance out the 10-20% meat calories? Or is there better ways

Hi y'all. I know you haven't heard from me in a long time. Nearly clear it seems but no there quite yet. Eating copious amounts of fermented dairy has made me break out a bit, but I am hoping it can help my gut in the long run. I'll post an update in a month, when I should be almost completely clear

I was also slowly losing weight on this diet, until I added Yogurt and flaxseed. If you can tolerate dairy, I'd recommend adding organic, pasture-fed yogurt (check Strauss or Green Valley Organics brands). You can combine this with sprouted, powdered flax seed. After adding these two to my diet, I've been able to maintain my body weight. And it makes a tasty snack

Thanks for the quick response. I also found on this diet eliminating sugar/grains its very hard to get daily calories to maintain or gain weight. I'm now a 6'1 male at 155 and definitely dont want to lose any more any advice on how to work this diet doing 10-20% meat and still keep weight? The veggies barely have any calories at all so does that mean it needs to be a whollllleeeee lot of extra vegetables to get balance out the 10-20% meat calories? Or is there better ways

 

White Fox can you answer question if knowledagable about saliva/urine ph. After incorporating this diet going on a week mostly meat and vegetables. My urine ph has been very acidic (4.5) looking online says that is dangerous and breeds disease. What would be the best reccomendation to stick with this diet and still be healthy acidiosis wise?

 

You're most likely eating to much protein. The "biggest" mistake people make when they switch from a high carbohydrate diet (with plenty of grains, legumes and other high carbohydrate foods) is to be afraid of fat. Fat should be your primary source of energy on this diet, and on most other paleolithic diets.

Hi y'all. I know you haven't heard from me in a long time. Nearly clear it seems but no there quite yet. Eating copious amounts of fermented dairy has made me break out a bit, but I am hoping it can help my gut in the long run. I'll post an update in a month, when I should be almost completely clear

 

Great to hear from you:)

Although I feel that fermented dairy can be very beneficial, I agree that sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented foods made form other sources than dairy, probably are even better if you can get them.

Eating both types is probably the best choice.

How does you diet and prebiotics and probiotics look like at the moment? Maybe I have some suggestions for improvements:)

For people losing too much weight on the diet:

Start eationg more fat! Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, fatty meat and fish, eggs, high-fat fermented dairy and grass-fed butter are examples of good fat sources on the diet.

Just adding olive oil to your salad or dinner might be enough to keep the weight on.

I have a few things to say...

I've been at this for going on 4 months now. I have given it 10000% effort. I believed, deeply, that it was going to work. I have stopped washing my fruits and vegetables. I have taken and eaten multiple sources of probiotics every day, including a high-quality probiotic supplement. I have followed the gut diet to the T. I have done everything right, and I still have not seen any improvements in my acne. I am still in pain. I still have 3-4 active, deep, painful and inflamed cysts on my face. As soon as the ones I have start running their course, new ones are coming up from the deepest parts of my skin like clockwork.

I have waited a long time to say anything or come to any conclusions, but at this point, the disappointment and heartbreak I feel over this is too heavy on my soul and I have to say something. I don't want anyone else to get their hopes up the way I did about this method. It simply is not the cure for everyone's acne.

I will say this though: I do not regret doing this treatment, and overall, it is probably one of the more important things I've done for my health. Acne aside, all the research about gut and bacteria is correct--it is a VERY important part of health, well being and immunity. I notice that I have a much stronger immune system now since repopulating my gut flora. I get over colds much more quickly and don't develop side infections like bronchitis as easily. So I'm still thankful that I found this thread and will continue to take and eat probiotic foods.

But unless someone can give me an explanation of what I'm doing wrong, I'm going to give up on this as an approach to heal acne. The fact that this hasn't helped even a little bit has been devastating for me. If anything, I actually think it's gotten worse. I used to have a week or two of clearing after my period. Now I stay broken out all the time and my skin is healing slower than ever. I have a cyst on my chin that has been painful and inflamed for months now. That isn't right. In fact, I'm scared I may be making it worse and am planning on lessening the amount of bacteria foods I eat. A friend who is a dietician told me that it isn't healthy to take as much probiotics as I've been taking (I showed her this plan). She says this amount of probiotics can harm you worse.

I completely believe that Whitefox started this thread with good intentions, not to give anyone false hope. But I couldn't sleep at night if I wasn't realistic about this and how it has not helped my skin. I'm always open to suggestions, but the "just keep doing what you're doing and it will get better" advice isn't right. It isn't getting better and it's time to face that.

I'm truly happy for anyone this has worked for, and I do hope it works for the rest of you.

I firmly believe that the more time you spend thinking about, looking at, and trying to treat your skin, the worse off you will be. Believing your regimen will work is very important, for the placebo effect. But if the regimen still takes a lot of time and effort, you may be better off not following it at all.

I agree. I just made a new thread that I at first was going to post here but I thought it might be better to post it where everyone could see. It would mean a lot to me if you guys took the time to read it:

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/324274-i-have-something-to-say-everyone-please-read/

It seems that most people are getting great results with diet, but....

For those not seeing results with the diet:

I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE DIET FOR 4 MONTHS OR 2 YEARS FOR THAT MATTER IF YOU STILL HAVE DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS, FOOD INTOLERANCES ETC. Then you still have inflammation going on because of the leaky gut, poor gut flora and improper digestion, and acne will not clear.

Dejaclairevoyant: You have made it clear througout the thread that you have several food intolerances and have been struggling with poor digestion for a long time, and that you haven't gotten rid of this problem, at least not fully, with The Gut Diet.

I'm not santa claus, I'm giving it to you guys straight. This treatment takes time, and for someone like dejaclairevoyant who has several food intolerances, poor digestion ++ it will take a lot of time. Someone with no food intolerance and no-mild digestive problems will see results much sooner.

I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE DIET FOR 4 MONTHS OR 2 YEARS FOR THAT MATTER IF YOU STILL HAVE DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS, FOOD INTOLERANCES ETC. Then you still have inflammation going on because of the leaky gut, poor gut flora and improper digestion, and acne will not clear.

Dejaclairevoyant: You have made it clear througout the thread that you have several food intolerances and have been struggling with poor digestion for a long time, and that you haven't gotten rid of this problem, at least not fully, with The Gut Diet.

 

Well yes, exactly. That's why I'm saying it doesn't work. You say things like heal food intolerances and digestive problems as if they are tasks you can just go do and check off the list. The probiotics and gut diet are supposed to be doing these things, no? It would be like saying, I have this amazing product that can heal cancer, but it only works when you heal your cancer!

I get that it can take a long time. But I can't just keep everything riding on this indefinitely. At some point you have to give up and say, okay, maybe this isn't all in my gut...

But like I said, I'm going to keep taking probiotics because I think they are good for you anyway. If this method ever clears my acne and helps my food intolerances I'll definitely come back and let you guys know. I just don't want anyone to have false hope anymore, especially me.

wow this is exactly what i realized yesterday!!! thanks for this awesome post! i just srtarted a 20 billion probiotic, peppermint oil, and apple cider vinegar. this just goes to show how worthless all those things are that we put on our face. they just mask the symtoms

It seems that most people are getting great results with diet, but....

For those not seeing results with the diet:

I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE DIET FOR 4 MONTHS OR 2 YEARS FOR THAT MATTER IF YOU STILL HAVE DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS, FOOD INTOLERANCES ETC. Then you still have inflammation going on because of the leaky gut, poor gut flora and improper digestion, and acne will not clear.

Dejaclairevoyant: You have made it clear througout the thread that you have several food intolerances and have been struggling with poor digestion for a long time, and that you haven't gotten rid of this problem, at least not fully, with The Gut Diet.

I'm not santa claus, I'm giving it to you guys straight. This treatment takes time, and for someone like dejaclairevoyant who has several food intolerances, poor digestion ++ it will take a lot of time. Someone with no food intolerance and no-mild digestive problems will see results much sooner.

 

Whitefox,

I'll not be coy. I'm not santa claus, and perhaps I was doing the org a disservice when I wasn't clear the first time. Hopefully I won't have to repeat myself.

You do not have the evidence to substantiate your claims.

Specifically, your resources only cover lactose intolerance. Being completely honest, you're repeating yourself, but you never really answered the kind of questions Deja and I had. Instead, you just kept dogmatically preaching about the wonders of the gut diet, and blaming Deja for the diet not working for her.

You couldn't come up with research on food intolerance beyond lactose, and it wasn't that hard to come across some preliminary level evidence in animal models that would suggest it as a possibility (that is, the role of probiotics in food intolerances). The fact that you only linked blogs and secondary/tertiary sources indicates to me that you are similar to a door to door religious salesman.

Again, I do think there is potentially something to aspects of the gut diet, based on the evidence that I've been looking at (no thanks to you linking the same thing over and over). However, because these studies are not in humans, you cannot conclusively state that probiotics will cure humans of intolerances. Maybe it happened for you and others, but that's just anecdotal evidence. You don't know if there are differences beyond the scope of what you are looking at that go into Deja's health.

I don't really expect you to change your tune considering that snide post you made to Deja.

This post is more for people who might come by this thread thinking they've found THE CURE to acne because of all the flashy promises. Could it help? Potentially. Don't get me wrong, I'm a proponent of probiotics for health in general, as well as skin conditions, but ...

Is it a guaranteed cure? No.

It seems that most people are getting great results with diet, but....

For those not seeing results with the diet:

I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE DIET FOR 4 MONTHS OR 2 YEARS FOR THAT MATTER IF YOU STILL HAVE DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS, FOOD INTOLERANCES ETC. Then you still have inflammation going on because of the leaky gut, poor gut flora and improper digestion, and acne will not clear.

Dejaclairevoyant: You have made it clear througout the thread that you have several food intolerances and have been struggling with poor digestion for a long time, and that you haven't gotten rid of this problem, at least not fully, with The Gut Diet.

I'm not santa claus, I'm giving it to you guys straight. This treatment takes time, and for someone like dejaclairevoyant who has several food intolerances, poor digestion ++ it will take a lot of time. Someone with no food intolerance and no-mild digestive problems will see results much sooner.

 

Whitefox,

I'll not be coy. I'm not santa claus, and perhaps I was doing the org a disservice when I wasn't clear the first time. Hopefully I won't have to repeat myself.

You do not have the evidence to substantiate your claims.

Specifically, your resources only cover lactose intolerance. Being completely honest, you're repeating yourself, but you never really answered the kind of questions Deja and I had. Instead, you just kept dogmatically preaching about the wonders of the gut diet, and blaming Deja for the diet not working for her.

You couldn't come up with research on food intolerance beyond lactose, and it wasn't that hard to come across some preliminary level evidence in animal models that would suggest it as a possibility (that is, the role of probiotics in food intolerances). The fact that you only linked blogs and secondary/tertiary sources indicates to me that you are similar to a door to door religious salesman.

Again, I do think there is potentially something to aspects of the gut diet, based on the evidence that I've been looking at (no thanks to you linking the same thing over and over). However, because these studies are not in humans, you cannot conclusively state that probiotics will cure humans of intolerances. Maybe it happened for you and others, but that's just anecdotal evidence. You don't know if there are differences beyond the scope of what you are looking at that go into Deja's health.

I don't really expect you to change your tune considering that snide post you made to Deja.

This post is more for people who might come by this thread thinking they've found THE CURE to acne because of all the flashy promises. Could it help? Potentially. Don't get me wrong, I'm a proponent of probiotics for health in general, as well as skin conditions, but ...

Is it a guaranteed cure? No.

 

Offcourse I agreee it's not a guaranteed cure, but inflammation seems to be the primary cause of acne, and healthy gut flora and intestinal lining significantly reduces inflammation.

And you must know that there's still a lot of research left to be done on this field. The knowledge about the importance of healthy gut flora has emerged just in the last couple of years, and "leaky gut" is just now being taken seriously by the general medicial community. If you look through the thread you will find links to information on other food intolerances than lactose intolerance.

I want to help people get clear, and I believe this is the best way for the majority of people:)

I think gut flora plays a huge, highly important role in the health of the skin and overall health. It just can't account for things like hormonal changes, especially in women. Inflammation in the body and autoimmune issues associated with the gut most surely will affect hormones. But then there are things such as ovarian cysts (which I suspect I may have) that can drastically affect hormones and skin, and I don't know if those things will be affected by repopulating gut flora.

What others say, may apply different to others.

But personally, the gut diet has changed my skin. You can argue that "I have no scientific evidence" but, over self analyzation I am very aware of what causes what and what does what in my body, and improving my gut was a huge factor.

I am a male so it may apply differently, but I was able to control my hormones and thus my acne by improving digestion and diet.

People don't have to take this thing bit too seriously, once you adapt to the gut diet, and improve your gut flora, occasional breads, sugar, pasta will have a far less effect on your skin, of course if you keep eating them on a daily basis your flora will begin to adjust itself.

Beginning the diet, you may have to eliminate most sugar for weeks, while supplementing with fermented foods. As it progresses, you can have your sandwhich for lunch, and carbs here and there but not too excessive, you just have to be aware of how your body reacts, and it does take time. I didn't use any probiotics.

In other words, people don't need to stress over too much. I don't even crave sugar, and fruits any longer, Food combination is really a essential process as well. Typical smoothies consisting of oil, eggs, fruits, and vegetables can give you a stomach ache, atleast in my case it does, while having oatmeals with bread would not.

Tea, salad, oils, eggs and meat are enough to keep me satisfied.

Again, I do think there is potentially something to aspects of the gut diet, based on the evidence that I've been looking at (no thanks to you linking the same thing over and over). However, because these studies are not in humans, you cannot conclusively state that probiotics will cure humans of intolerances.

I haven't looked to see if there are any studies to see if probiotics affect food intolerances, but there are quite a few studies on how probiotics and prebiotics affect intestinal permeability. Below are some of the ones I've found that were performed with humans or mice:

• Lactobacillus casei Shirota (probiotic) at 3x6.5Billion didnt seem to improve leaky gut, but maybe a higher dosage would help. Link
• Probiotics seemed to improve leaky gut in mice. Link
• 2 weeks of 16g of prebiotics (Orafti Synergy1) helped glucose regulation, lowered hunger and increased activity of gut bacteria. Note: Jarrows InulinFoS contains Orafti Synergy1 Link
• 2 weeks of 6g/day of prebiotics didnt help improve intestinal permeability in burn victims. These results were explained with the lower gut bacteria mostly benefit from prebiotics, not the upper gut bacteria. Link
• 1 week of probiotic/prebiotic didnt improve gut barrier function but increased beneficial bacteria in upper gut. Link
• Probiotic/prebiotic (synergy1) helped improve inflammation markers. Link
• Probiotic Lacto bacteria (200 M) for 8 weeks increased pH and decreased pathological bacteria to 1/10 the previous level. Link
• Probiotic in yogurt (10e12 cfu) in Egyptian children significantly decreased intestinal permeability (42 days). Link
• Probiotic fermented milk for 4 weeks (Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium Longum) significantly improved mucosal barrier function. Link
• Grapeseed extract may help intestinal permeability. Link
• Inulin pasta significantly decreased intestinal permeability and significantly increased zonulin over two 5-week study periods (unsure about exact% from abstract) Link
• High fat diet increased intestinal permeability in mice. Link
• Probiotic supplementation over 14 weeks helped decrease gut permeability markers (> 20%) in trained men. Link

Overall, studies with longer duration and higher probiotic/prebiotic amounts reported better results with improving intestinal permeability.

Again, I do think there is potentially something to aspects of the gut diet, based on the evidence that I've been looking at (no thanks to you linking the same thing over and over). However, because these studies are not in humans, you cannot conclusively state that probiotics will cure humans of intolerances.

 

I haven't looked to see if there are any studies to see if probiotics affect food intolerances, but there are quite a few studies on how probiotics and prebiotics affect intestinal permeability. Below are some of the ones I've found that were performed with humans or mice:

• Lactobacillus casei Shirota (probiotic) at 3x6.5Billion didnt seem to improve leaky gut, but maybe a higher dosage would help. Link
• Probiotics seemed to improve leaky gut in mice. Link
• 2 weeks of 16g of prebiotics (Orafti Synergy1) helped glucose regulation, lowered hunger and increased activity of gut bacteria. Note: Jarrows InulinFoS contains Orafti Synergy1 Link
• 2 weeks of 6g/day of prebiotics didnt help improve intestinal permeability in burn victims. These results were explained with the lower gut bacteria mostly benefit from prebiotics, not the upper gut bacteria. Link
• 1 week of probiotic/prebiotic didnt improve gut barrier function but increased beneficial bacteria in upper gut. Link
• Probiotic/prebiotic (synergy1) helped improve inflammation markers. Link
• Probiotic Lacto bacteria (200 M) for 8 weeks increased pH and decreased pathological bacteria to 1/10 the previous level. Link
• Probiotic in yogurt (10e12 cfu) in Egyptian children significantly decreased intestinal permeability (42 days). Link
• Probiotic fermented milk for 4 weeks (Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium Longum) significantly improved mucosal barrier function. Link
• Grapeseed extract may help intestinal permeability. Link
• Inulin pasta significantly decreased intestinal permeability and significantly increased zonulin over two 5-week study periods (unsure about exact% from abstract) Link
• High fat diet increased intestinal permeability in mice. Link
• Probiotic supplementation over 14 weeks helped decrease gut permeability markers (> 20%) in trained men. Link

 

Overall, studies with longer duration and higher probiotic/prebiotic amounts reported better results with improving intestinal permeability.

 

Thanks for the links! To clarify, it's not that I didn't doubt that it were possible (because of the animal models and lactose models), but that in the immediate links that WhiteFox provided in his initial post didn't have anything beyond that.Unfortunately, most of the studies you linked were in mice (I was hoping for in vivo human studies), and the handful of human studies didn't really help the whole gut case (as they didn't seem to help, but they were isolated probiotics, small studies, etc). I'm hoping there'll be studies about food intolerances in the future, but as far as increased intestinal permeability is concerned, I'm pretty confident that it is a legitimate phenomena with health implications in different types of people, but I'm still researching the specifics. There definitely needs to be long term studies with larger groups of people with different types of good for the gut type regimens.

At this point, I think it's fair to say that it is worth people's time to try a regimen such as this based on the current research, especially since there aren't any current medical alternatives.

I don't know if there are other drugs, but I suspect once larazotide jumps through the leaps and bounds of trials and the FDA, then we'll see much more research in this field as companies try to get their own patents on drugs that work to get the same effect through slightly different mechanisms.

http://www.nature.co...jg2012211a.html

Offcourse I agreee it's not a guaranteed cure, but inflammation seems to be the primary cause of acne, and healthy gut flora and intestinal lining significantly reduces inflammation.

And you must know that there's still a lot of research left to be done on this field. The knowledge about the importance of healthy gut flora has emerged just in the last couple of years, and "leaky gut" is just now being taken seriously by the general medicial community. If you look through the thread you will find links to information on other food intolerances than lactose intolerance.

I want to help people get clear, and I believe this is the best way for the majority of people:)

 

I wholeheartedly agree that gut flora and intestinal permeability as it relates to autoimmune diseases (and health in general) is going to be a real frontier for research, and we'll definitely be seeing more research in the coming years since there's going to be a growing interest of funders, not to be a cynic and chock it up to simple supply and demand (because there are people who care about these kinds of things for good reasons beyond dollars).

The more people that start to get diagnosed wanting treatment, and the more studies there are that validate that something is clearly going on when it comes to gut flora and health, and there'll be more of a market. I would like to see that the drug could help people with minimal to no side effects, particularly to augment an integrative regimen where both a healthy "gut diet" and drugs, if needed (perhaps in more difficult cases), could be used as well.

Your post definitely inspired me to look more into probiotics/intestinal permeability/GI health, and I do appreciate you posting. I just thought your post came off as unsympathetic towards Deja's situation, but I'm glad you clarified that you do want to help people whilst acknowledging the limitations and potential obstacles people might face.

Food intolerance

I feel the need to repost this information from Dr. Art Ayers (PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Worked at numerous institutions, including assistant professor in the Cell and Developmental Biology Department at Harvard University)

http://coolinginflam...ntolerance.html

Genetics of Food Intolerance

 

Food intolerance is based on missing bacteria in the the gut rather than inadequacy of human enzymes, e.g. lactase, or altered immune system.

 

I make the extreme statement that food intolerance is not genetic, to emphasize that the vast majority of intolerance can be cured by changing the bacterial composition of the gut's microbiological community, the gut flora, rather than attempting to accommodate a permanent deficiency. The two common "intolerances" that are offered by my readers to invalidate my sweeping statement are lactose and gluten (celiac) intolerance.

 

Lactose Intolerance is Not Due to Inadequate Lactase

Everybody has the same gene for lactase, but some people have altered upstream control elements and continue to express lactase in their intestinal cells after infancy, whereas others don't. The racial pattern of adult lactase expression is an interesting note on human evolution, but is irrelevant with respect to an individual's ability to tolerate the lactose sugar in dairy products.

 

Lactose is the major sugar present in milk and the ability of the intestines to utilize lactose directly like glucose is a selective advantage for human evolution. Absent that ability, lactose would just pass through the gut without impact. However, bacteria in the colon also have lactose digesting enzymes. These bacteria produce hydrogen and methane gases, and these products in turn can feed other bacteria. If all of the products are consumed, then the lactose has been treated as a soluble fiber and the result is more gut bacteria and a happy gut. If some of the bacteria are missing, then the lactose acts as a laxative, e.g. lactulose, and the bowels are not so happy.

 

All that is needed to cure lactose intolerance, as in all food intolerances, is to provide the gut bacteria that are missing to fully metabolize the offending sugars or polysaccharides. Just continuing to eat dairy without also eating or introducing new species of bacteria into your gut, will just provide more symptoms, but eating yogurt still containing live probiotic bacteria (Read the label. Any live bacteria listed will work.) that have the enzymes to ferment lactose, will lead to a rapid cure. (See reference below.) As the fermenting bacteria grow in the gut, they transfer their genes to gut bacteria in the biofilms lining the gut and these new species of bacteria keep the lactose out of trouble.

 

The point is that having a food intolerance means that the aggregate of all of the genes in all of your gut microorganisms is lacking the genes/enzymes needed to completely digest a food component. In the case of lactose intolerance, the missing genes are present in typical probiotics, bacteria that grow on milk/lactose.

 

Celiac is not a Typical Food Intolerance

Celiac is a complex interaction between major toxic proteins in wheat (gliadin), detox gut enzyme (tissue transglutaminase, tTg) and antibodies. Gliadin is a wheat protein adapted to attack the intestines of herbivores. Herbivores, such as insects and humans, can in turn protect themselves from gliadin and other polyglutamine proteins with the enzyme transglutaminase. tTg binds to glutamines in gliadin and converts them to glutamic acids. Unfortunately, while the gliadin is bound to the tTg, inflammation can predispose the gut to present these proteins to the immune system for processing to trigger antibody production. This is the start of the autoimmune disease.

 

The major histocompatibility antigens (MHAs) code for the proteins that display fragments of proteins on cell surfaces for antigen presentation and immune response. There is a lot of MHA variation and evolutionary adaptation. Some MHAs favor antibody production to gliadin and tTg. This just shows that celiac and grain/gluten intolerance is not a typical food intolerance, which will be remedied by simply altering gut bacteria, even though establishing gut bacteria that metabolize gliadin or that reduce autoimmunity, may be part of the cure.

 

 

Enhancing Gut Flora is Part of the Cure for all Autoimmune Diseases

There are rare food allergies, even though the majority are misdiagnosed intolerances. The production of antibodies to food antigens is a symptom of the breakdown in communication between the gut immune system and gut flora. Particular species of bacteria are responsible for the development of both the aggressive and suppressive components of the immune system, which occurs in the lining of the gut. Loss of the suppressive cells, Tregs, can result from unhealthy diets and exposure to antibiotics, and results in autoimmune disease, in which the aggressive immune system is out of control and attacks self antigens.

 

Symptoms of all autoimmune diseases can be improved by reestablishing normal control of the aggressive part of the immune system via healthy gut flora. Clostridium species of bacteria normally induce healthy development of the suppressive immune system and these types of bacteria are common in soil clinging to fresh vegetables prior to extensive washing. Which of the bacteria that are eaten become established in the gut flora is unpredictable, because the bacteria interact with each other, food and cells lining the gut. The only safe and simple procedure currently available is the fecal transplant. Some experimental fecal transplants are facilitated by the use of encapsulated freeze-dried gut flora. There is great resistance to this simple, safe, cheap approach from the medical industry.

 

Reference:

Almeida CC, Lorena SL, Pavan CR, Akasaka HM, Mesquita MA. 2012. Beneficial Effects of Long-Term Consumption of a Probiotic Combination of Lactobacillus casei Shirota and Bifidobacterium breve Yakult May Persist After Suspension of Therapy in Lactose-Intolerant Patients. Nutr Clin Pract., 27(2):247-51.