Gut-Brain-Psychology & T2DM

The following is a reply to Patliputra's earlier post on Gut & Intestinal Bacteria & Diabetes Type 2 at healthunlocked.com/diabetes.....

I've decided to copy my reply and then turn it a separate general post so that more members can avail themselves to the topical contents.

This post [of Patliputra] does not address IBS actually but the general issue about the link between diabetes and gut microbiome, yet the replies here seem to strangely target IBS.  The easiest way to restore the health of the gut microbiome is to eat fermented foods.  Most cultures have - thanks to their intuitive wisdom - invented fermented foods as they know that they are fundamental to good health, thus lending credence to the adage that disease begins in your guts.  So it makes a lot of sense when Ayurvedic physicians recommend the use of Triphala as a first step to addresses this issue.

There is increasing experimental evidence of the gut-brain axis - google up Natasha Campbell-McBride and read about how she helped to restore the health of her own autistic child and many other autistic kids at her clinic in London. So it is no longer theoretical for McBride has applied the gut-psychology concept to solve a troubling and rising disease in modern times.

Another very interesting line of research coming from Dr David Perlmutter has delved deeply into how shifts in the gut biome have been correlated with diabetes and he even named the 5 types of gut flora [Lactobacillis plantaram, Lactobacillis acidophilus, Lactobacillis brevis, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum] that are basic to good health.  The one linked with diabetes is L. plantaram is found in Kimchi, for instance. This is the fermented food eaten day and night by Koreans.

So if you can get Kimchi at your local supermarket, try it and see if it helps.  But you can easily make your own KImchi in your own kitchen, using basically Napa cabbage or just plain cabbage - the soft-leaf type is best.  Even the German sauerkraut is fine and easy to make too.  You will find India a rich source of fermented foods - yogurt, lassi, kefir, achar, chutney, etc.  So take that step and start including it in your diet as well. In our eagerness to move into the digital and electronic age, we have unwittingly forgotten traditional wisdom, no?

Wikipedia starters:                                                                                                         [1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...

[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...                                    

[3] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferme...

You can watch all the youtube videos on or by Dr D. Perlmutter here:  youtube.com/results?search_...

Oh, if you are desperate in solving gut issues and diabetes, there is an extreme measure called 'Fecal Transplant' which is receiving increasing attention in medical circles.  It sounds gross, doesn't it, but it has a very high success rate.  This videos below talk about it:

[1] Brain Maker, Fecal Transplants:

[2] Fecal Transplant for Weight Loss & Diabetes:

[3] More videos here: youtube.com/results?search_...

[patliputra]

Your post is touching a different aspect and that is gut - brain axis which was not my subject. So this can not be a reply. I confined myself to T2 only and tried to make it as non technical as possible. I deliberately omitted the names of different bacteria and so also fermented food. I was not talking about Heath and improvement in gut biome. Nevertheless,thanks for the post.it is illuminating.

[Hidden in reply to patliputra]

thanks for clarifying the matter. I decided to add details esp of the names of the gut microbiome - actually an afterthought, to avoid being asked later by respondents following the posting.  Earlier and elsewhere someone asked about providing links to empirical evidence citing the guts being causally linked to T2DM - this is an instance of convergence between eastern/TAM and western medicine, so I am providing a few links in the above post as a reply - targeting  two birds with one stone basically

[Hidden]

Sorry, the links did not appear in the above post.  Here they are:

[1] Brain Maker, Fecal Transplants: youtube.com/watch?v=baJqlQV...(Not working as expected?)

[2] Fecal Transplant for Weight Loss & Diabetes: youtube.com/watch?v=CmnR4Ne...(Not working as expected?)

Video listing of the subject 'Fecal Transplants":

[3] More videos here: youtube.com/results?search_...

[Hidden]

It sets the stage by providing the ecological balance that was lacking or that has been thrown out of balance.  If one want to plant some vegetables on a plot of land or in your own sweet garden, one has to do the preliminaries - till the land, etc before introducing other things like fertilizer, pH regulator, etc. In other words, fermented foods can be introduced once the intestinal environment is rendered more conducive for microbiome to begin the colonization of the guts.  Triphala does the intro/prep job.

[kuttyachariya]

Very Interesting. Can be discussed widely in this form. 

[Hidden]

hahaha... generally people do not like to talk about what comes out at the other end, but the good news is that there is, coming our way soon, a very, very promising "supplement" - a patent submitted in Nov 2012. I believe it has been fast tracked too for patent approval, etc.  It contains a gut bacterium that has galvanized the medical community by the miraculous things it can do esp. those related to obesity: inflammation, hypertension, diabetes, liver disease, diseased heart and a host of other related metabolic disorder issues. Would anyone file an expensive patent if s/he is unsure of the efficacy of the invention and its commercial success? According to the patent description, It will come in a once-a-day pill. The actual wording in the patent is:

"The present invention relates to the treatment of metabolic disorders, such as, for example, metabolic disorders related to overweight and obesity, such as, for example, Diabetes Mellitus."

I'll withold the name of that bacterium here as I think it deserves a general posting in the near future, so watch out for it in the coming posts. Naming the bacterium here will be a spoiler