THE WESTERN DIET KILLS US YET AGAIN…Inflammatory bowel disease is when your body attacks its own gut. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s are the biggies. Not only are these diseases bad enough all on their own, but these conditions are associated with much higher rates of colorectal cancer. This particular study implicates the Western Diet (high in processed foods, animal saturated fats, artificial stuff, low in fruits and veggies, healthy oils, phytonutrients) in this progression from IBD to cancer. Adding more doom to the picture, it seems that the rates of IBD are going up in our children. This is likely a result of messing with the immune system too early with wanton use of antibiotics and vaccination (both of which skew the immune system towards autoimmunity). This makes it even more important to avoid antibiotics in children except in the most dire of circumstances, view each immunization with a magnifying glass and make sure they grow up knowing what fruits and veggies and olive oil look like and have no idea that you’re supposed to eat that brilliantly colored food looking product that comes in a box or plastic wrap.
Digestive Complaints
Proton-Pump Inhibitors and Heart Disease
3RD LEADING CLASS OF MEDICATION LINKED TO HEART DISEASE?
Given my understanding of human physiology, I consider the act of digestion and assimilation of nutrients to be one of the most important things that our bodies do. Off the top of my head, I can list at least 10 things that stomach acid is absolutely essential for. In other words–it’s REALLY important. Then consider the fact that age and stress begins to drastically lower our stomach’s production of acid. With this fact in mind, one would begin to ask how a class of drug that further lowers an already too little production of acid could hold the #3 spot in drug use. A very good question and one that I can’t really answer because it doesn’t make sense if one understands how digestion works. The proton pump inhibitors (names like Prilosec, Nexium, Aciphex, Protonix) shut down digestion. Because of this, they have been linked to osteoporosis, liver problems, weakening of the lining of the gut, C. difficile infections and now (as if the list already wasn’t bad enough), heart disease. Given how incredibly rare making TOO much stomach acid is, one should ask what is the purpose of this med being used in patients. The only viable use is if someone has a bleeding ulcer, in which case this class of drugs will save a life. Ironically, most people given PPIs are actually making too LITTLE stomach acid and supporting digestion (apple cider vinegar, digestive enzymes, stress mang’t) goes a long way towards eliminating symptoms.
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High Protein, Gut
LOSING WEIGHT THIS WAY MAY DAMAGE THE COLON? The high protein / low carb (aka Atkin’s diet) has never been a good idea with only a few exceptions. In general, this type of diet will kill you in the long run, and this particular study suggests that the route of deceasement (Word is suggesting that “deceasement” isn’t a word, but it seems to fit..) will be colon cancer. Even just 4 weeks of this type of diet was enough to lower the amount of protective compounds in the colon and increase the number of hazardous compounds. The likely problem here is the high levels of animal based saturated fat combined with the low levels of both soluble and insoluble fiber from lack of whole grains, beans and certain fruits and veggies. Read More…
Drugs for Ulcers; Extreme Dangers of Long-Term Use
If you’ve got a bleeding ulcer, drugs that block acid like Nexium, Prilosec and Aciphex can save your life. Even if that ulcer is caused by your daily anti-inflammatory.
However, for the remaining 99% of the time that acid-blocking drugs are used, they can wreak havoc.
You see, the body digests….and it does everything else. When it comes to digestion, stomach acid is the lynchpin. The key. The big daddy.
Stop the production of stomach acid, and you open up the Mother of all Pandora’s boxes. Stomach acid does not just participate in digestion, it STARTS it. Among many other things. Here is just a small sample of what stomach acid does in the human body:
- The most obvious function is the digestion of proteins.
- Most other digestive enzymes are produced in an inactive form (otherwise the enzymes would digest the very glands they are made in). Stomach acid activates these enzymes so they can work.
- The pH of the stomach has to be low enough to tell the pancreas to release bicarbonate. Stomach acid ensures this happens. Without it, the pH of the contents released from the stomach (chyme) stay acidic and can damage the entire length of the intestinal tract.
- Stomach acid turns on certain anti-cancer compounds in foods (like indole-3-carbinol in cruciferous veggies).
- Stomach acid is needed to absorb certain compounds like iron and B12.
There’s one other little ditty that stomach acid does. There are very few microorganisms that can survive a pH of 2 or 3. In other words, stomach acid sterilizes most things that try to make it through the stomach.
That means that if you do not have enough stomach acid because you are, say…taking Nexium…, bacteria will begin to grow in regions of the intestine that are not supposed to have bacteria growing in them. The technical term for this is small intestine bacterial overgrowth (or SIBO, for short).
And if you want to pick something that can totally screw up your health, SIBO is a good first choice. Having bacteria growing where it is not supposed to be begins to damage the lining of the small intestine, allowing things to get into your body that are not supposed to. This can create massive amounts of inflammation everywhere, even in the brain.
Just in case you think I’m making this up, researchers in this particular study looked at the gut flora of the lower intestinal tract (microbiome) of 1827 healthy twins to see if proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use had any negative effects.
Here’s what they found in those PPI users:
- There was a lower number of normal gut bacteria (commensals).
- There was a lower microbial diversity (the “mark of death” when it comes to a healthy gut).
- There were a higher number bacterial from the oral cavity (again indicating that these bacterial are not getting killed off in the stomach), with a special mention of the Streptococcaceae family.
The list I gave earlier is really bad enough when it comes to destroying your health. But when you add in a disruption to the microbiome, the sky’s the limit to how much damage long-term use is to your health.
And just what is “long-term?” If you read the safety labels, then anything over 3 months is completely out of context of what these drugs are designed for. That does not mean that I haven’t seen patients on these for DECADES. THAT is a disaster waiting to happen.
But what about all those patients out there that make too much stomach acid and need these drugs?
I will go out on a limb and state that almost NO ONE who has reflux or gastritis makes too much stomach acid. Quite frankly, short of a gastrin-producing tumor, it just doesn’t happen. As a matter of fact, with stress and with aging, stomach acid production goes down. It gets to the point where some 40% of women over 50 are not producing any stomach acid AT ALL (achlorhydria).
I’m not saying that stomach acid getting where it’s not supposed to be is a good thing, because it’s not. What I am saying is that stomach acid is not the problem. Usually, the problem is just the opposite. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given digestive support to patients with gastritis or reflux and their symptoms went away.
Kind of ironic that this approach to totally opposed to the mainstream medical approach and yet seems to work very well.
All without destroying your microbiome and your long term health. What a bargain.
Acid Blocking Drugs Destroy the Stomach and Lead to Cancer
ARE YOU TAKING THIS CLASS OF DRUGS FOR STOMACH PROBLEMS?
Proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, Nexium, Aciphex and a very popular class of drugs for gastritis and heartburn. This class of drugs was designed ONLY for short term use (several months at most) and yet many patients remain on them for years. First off, it is very rare for someone to make too much stomach acid. It’s just not common. Consider this–stress shuts down digestion. Digestion also slows down as we get older, leading to stomach acid deficiencies in most seniors. Knowing this, do you REALLY think you make too much stomach acid and that’s why your doctor put you on this class of drugs? Most often, symptoms are from too LITTLE stomach acid and supporting digestion (the exact opposite!) actually works very well. Either way, in this study, researchers found that long term use of PPI in a mouse model actually destroyed the lining of the stomach, leading to even worse digestion. Bottom line? This class of drugs is NOT designed for long term use. If you’ve got a bleeding ulcer, great–this class of drugs will likely save your life. Short of that you need to look for better options.
H Pylori and Stomach Acid
IS THAT ULCER FROM TOO MUCH STOMACH ACID?
Most likely not. It’s actually very, very rare for someone to make too much stomach acid. Consider this. As we get older we make less and less stomach acid (the region of the stomach that makes stomach acid begins to atrophy), so if you’re past maybe 50, it’s almost guaranteed that you make too little.
Then, consider that stress reduces stomach acid production. That pretty much wipes out the rest of the population…
THEN, consider that H. pylori, the bacteria that contributes to ulcers, actually works very hard at keeping our stomach from producing acid. This really raises the question of dealing with stomach problems and reflux by blocking acid production.
You don’t have enough to start with, and then we find, in this study, that the bug that contributes (H. pylori) doesn’t LIKE acid and shuts stomach acid production down, so why on Earth would we want to further shut down our body’s own production?? This is one class of drugs that I have serious problems with (with, of course, the exception of someone with a bleeding ulcer, in which case this class of drugs will save their lives), given that it doesn’t even make sense and that stomach acid production is absolutely essential to a long list of very, very important physiological processes.
I usually recommend the other way, supporting digestion to overcome the effect that age and stress have on our ability to digest.
Do Antacids Cause Allergies?
DO ULCER DRUGS CONTRIBUTE TO ALLERGIES?
I’ve always had major issues with drugs that bring digestion to a screeching halt. Now, if someone has a bleeding ulcer this class of drugs can save a life. Short of that, stopping digestion is horrendously bad for your health. I can tick off at least 10 processes that will be interrupted. Any patient that’s been put on this class of drugs I suggest they go back and ask the prescribing doctor to give them at least 5 things that this drug will interfere with. It is only proper that the doctor should KNOW what they are interfering with, right?? This animal study finds that giving acid blockers increases allergic response. Why? Because our GI tract, which is where 2/3 of our immune system is centered around, reacts primarily to proteins. More proteins = more stuff to react to. So what happens in a properly functioning stomach? Most proteins are digested down to their constituent amino acids. Not so with acid suppressive drugs. Instead proteins are left to react to our immune system, and worse–left to go RANCID in the warm recesses of the intestinal tract!
Can Antibiotics Lead to Ulcers? The H. pylori Story
ANTIBIOTICS LEAD TO ULCERS?? This is not a normal association in allopathic medicine, but if you follow the physiology it makes tremendous sense. The bottom line is that antibiotics decimate our normal, protective flora whether it is in the back of the throat, small intestine, vaginal vault, large intestine or even in the stomach. We have seen studies where lower levels of lactobacillus lead to higher levels of H. pylori. This is another study (albeit an animal study) that demonstrates the link between low levels of protective flora and higher levels of H. pylori. The ironic thing is that H. pylori is treated with a triple course of antibiotics, which is likely how it got there in the first place!!