Microbiome/Gut Health Book List

[AARA]

I have had a request for more details of more books and authors regarding

Microbiome

Microbiota

Health Gut

Leaky Gut

Gut-Brain AXIS

Probiotics Prebiotics Dysbiosis

It is all really about the bacteria which have lived happily in our digestive tracks for thousands if not millions of years and which we have really mucked up in the last 70 or so years.

First I will list what I have read. Then what I would have read if time and finances permitted and then what I am aware of but which has not even been published yet!! The explosion in this field of research has been at least 30 years coming and now stuff is being published by masses of University academics on the one hand and in an easy to understand format mainly by Doctors and Nutritionists etc.

You can learn a massive amount without spending any money just google Amazon Books. For many of the authors you can listen to them on YouTube, just type in their name or one of the words in the above list. On bad days I have the energy to listen when I do not have the energy to read.

Most of it is written in America because they just seem to have produced more books. If it comes from a British Author I will try to remember to mention it.

I am including lots of stuff about Gut Brain Axis and Depression because a very significant proportion of folk with RA and other Auto-immune diseases also suffer with depression, as I have. RA is enough to get anyone down, but it appears this has a biochemical basis as well as life just being challenging.

I hope along the way you get inspired and at least a little more hopeful. Here goes.

1. Missing Microbes. How Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling our Modern Plagues

Martin J Blaser MD

A classic based on over 30 years of research. Great for those who ask why and are interested in an over view. Will not tell you how to heal you though in a.

2. A Mind of Your Own. The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal

their Bodies and Reclaim their lives.

Kelly Brogan MD

An alternative approach to SSRI and why the anti-depressants are often

ineffective.

3. The Clever Guts Diet. How to revolutionize your body from the inside out.

Dr. Micheal Mosley. He is often on the BBC. Trust Me I'm a Doctor etc.

An easy read. Lots of expensive recipes for which he has been criticized.

Before you buy the book try the web site of the same name to get a feel for if it

is right for you. I think the recipes look easier to follow than some of the

American versions, simply because he's a Brit, but I have yet to try them

Just finished reading this one.

4. The Gut Makeover. 4 weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionize You Health

and Lose Weight

Also Gut Makeover Recipe Book

Jeanette Hyde Nutritional Therapist

Great theory, but for me up North on a limited budget and no local Super

Market which stocks half the required ingredients not perfect. However these

were the first couple of book giving practical dietary solutions I read and some

of the principals I have put into practice, which I think have helped came from

here. Just trying to tell you how it has been for me.

5. The Keystone Approach. Healing Arthritis and Psoriasis by Restoring the

Microbiome.

Rebecca Fett

She has read over 400 scientific papers as part of her research for this and it is

new 2017. Some of her advice contradics what I have read elsewhere. This may

be just a different stance. It may be because it is more recent than some of

what I have read or it could be because it is more specifically about Arthritis

than any other book I have read. This is the newest book in my "library" and I

have not even finished it yet let alone started putting what is in there into

practice.

6. FOLLOW YOUR GUT. How the bacteria in Your Stomach Steer Your Health,

Mood and More.

ROB KNIGHT

Another CLASSIC. Short easy read. Great place to start if you are new to all

this. Co-Founder of the American Gut Project. See the web sites for both the

British Gut Project and the American Gut Project. Listen to Rob Knight on You

Tube before you pay for the book.

7. The Gut Health Diet Plan. Recipes to Improve Digestive Health and Boost

Wellbeing.

Christine Bailey UK Based Nutritional Therapist. Lovely book lots of pictures, if

am remembering it right. Currently on loan. Again if I am being critical, too

sophisticated for my local shops and my budget. I was diagnosed as wheat

intolerant over 30 years ago. I have probably not used a new recipe book in 30

years, except for trying to use the ones on this list and I have not followed a

weight loss diet for about 30 years. Lots of exclusion diets over the years. So

all you out there may adapt to this following new recipes lark far more easily.

8. GUT The Inside Story of you body's most under rated organ.

Giulia Enders

Short Easy Popular Read. Great biology lesson for those not familiar with their

digestive tract.

9. The Diet Myth. The Real Science Behind What We Eat.

Prof. Tim Spector. British Academic. Involved with the British Gut Project.

Another CLASSIC another good place to start. The style of writing makes is

accessible to the vast majority.

This next lot are mainly in my "Save for Later" section on my Amazon Account. I either have not got around to ordering them yet, or they are way beyond my budget, or perhaps I would need a Bio Chemistry Degree to really appreciate them. They may be right for some of you Medics reading this. Anyway it will give you a feel for just how much stuff at different levels is out there. Remember Amazon let you open the book and read a lot before you buy. That is how I got started.

10. Gut Balance Revolution. Boost Your Metabolism. Restore Your Inner Ecology

and Lose Weight for Good.

Gerard E Mullins MD

Just published 13 Aug. 2017

11. The Vitamin Cure for Digestive Disease. How to Treat and Eliminate Digestive

Problems Using Nutrition and Vitamin Supplements.

Damien Downing MD

This guy is a former NHS GP British. He has been doing this stuff for over 30

years. He was talking about Leaky Guts, Probiotics and Elimination diets in the

1980's. From 1987 until 1995 at least (when I had private Medical Insurance) he

was my Nutritional Specialist. I had been ill for years and he got me back to

health. If I had been able to continue to afford to follow his recommendation

the last decade might just have been a much healthier time for me.

12. Probiotics, Prebiotics and Symbiotics Bioactive Foods in Health Promotion.

Ronald Ross Watson Oct. 2015 Price £77.22

13. The Autoimmune Solution. Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of

Inflammatory Disease.

Amy Myers.

14. The Microbiota in Gastrointestinal Pathophyiology. Implications for Human

Health Prebiotics, Probiotics and Dysbiosis

Martin H. Floch Dec 2016 Price £98.63

15. Brain Maker. The Power of Gut Microbiomes to Heal and Protect Your Brain

for Life.

David Perlmutter. Popular Functional Medicine Doctor. You will find loads on

YouTube. I think I listened to an entire volume of a previous book on youtube

for free.

16. The Gut-Mind Connection. How the Hidden Conversation within our Bodies

Impacts our Mood our Choices and our Overall Health

Emeran Myers Aug. 2016

17. The Gut-Brain Axis. Dietary Probiotics and Prebiotics. Interventions on the

Microbiota.

Niall Hyland and Catherine Stanton Pub. June 2016 Price £86.28

18. Clinical Experiences of IBS. Brain-Gut Axis V Gut-Brain Axis

Maria Esposito Pub. June 2017 London Based.

19. The Psychobiotic Revolution. Mood Food and the New Scinece of the Gut-

Brain Connection.

Scott C. Anderson Publication Date set for Nov. 201

20. Understanding Gut Microbiota.

Gerald W. Tannock Pub. Feb 2017 Price £104.00

21. The Human Microbiota and Chronic Disease. Dysbiosis as a Cause of Human

Pathology.

Luigi Nibali and Brian Henderson Pub. Sept 2016 Price £120.00

22. Gut Microbiota. Interactive Effects of Nutrition and Health

Edward Ishiguro and Natasa Haskey Publication date set Jan 2018

Price £78.95

23. The Human Super Organism. How the Microbiome is Revolutionizing the

Pursuit of a Healthy Life.

Rodney. R. Dietert. Pub. Jul 2016

24. I Contain Multitudes. The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life.

Ed. Young Pub. Sept 2017 £6.29

25. The Symbiont Factor. How the Gut Microbiome Redefines Health, Disease

and Humanity.

Richard A. Matthews Pub. 2014

26. The Secret Life of Your Microbiome, Why Nature and Biodiversity are

Essential for Health and Happiness.

Susan Prescott and Alan Logan Pub. Sept 2017 Price 17.99

27. The Whole Brain. The Micribiome Solution to Beat Depression, Anxiety and

Mental Fog Without Prescription Drugs.

Raphael Kellman Pub Sept. 2017 Price £17.99

28. Cultured How Ancient Foods Can Feed Our Microbiome.

Katherine Harmon Courage Pub. Due April 2018 Price £20.9

29. Rewild Your 99% Microbes. It's time you started eating like it.

Jeff. D. Leach Pub. Aug. 2015 Co-founder American Gut Project.

30. The Essential Handbook to a Healthy Gut. Hoe a Leaky Gut Impacts your

Entire Body and Hoe to Make it Healthy Once Again

Evelyn Carmicheal Published June 2017 Price £6.70

I did say there was a lot going on in this area. If you have got this far you deserve a prize for your time and persistence. If any of you find the time, money and energy to learn anything helpful from all this lot please post your feedback, not merely for my benefit but for everyone else on the site.

This approach is not for all. If your are in a bad place right now the traditional approach may well be the only route you feel well enough to pursue.

With so much going on and with so much potential to help so many sick folk improve and for so many others to retain their health, I believe our understanding of of the importance of the relationship between Health and Disease and between the drugs we take and the food we eat is embarking on a new era.

We cannot turn back the clock of the last 70 years or so, but we can hope for better health and well being both for ourselves and our friends and families in the future.

Sorry for the bad spelling and the typos. I am Dyslexic after all.

Just hope this helps and encourages.

AARA

[allanah]

Hi. Wow thats a huge list of books.

I wonder how many of these are approved research ie gold star meta analysis studies and not just one author study ?

I hope the nhs will be able to put these pieces together and come out with a formal statement. I'm not aware of an official one at the moment which states that gut flora imbalance ( although it may appear sensible) actually causes chronic illness such as RA or depression.

I can see people may try this and yes I stick to the traditional route until they prove to me and fund nhs treatment on gut leaking before I try.

Some things can interfere with traditional treatments I believe so I'm wary ...until proved otherwise. If they have been trying 70 years surely it would be established evidence by Now?

[AARA in reply to allanah]

Hi allanah,

I read something, just yesterday, about the investment in research into Gut Health Worldwide, it is estimated to already be well in excess of a billion pounds. Arthritis UK has already invested in this type of research.

My book list barely scratches the surface. In the last five years alone there are literally thousands of academic research papers being published about Microbiome/Microbiota and related topics every year. Just Google academic studies Microbota and/or Microbiome.

Many of the books on my list, which are too expensive for me to buy, are collections of academic, peer reviewed, published, scientific papers on these topics.

When I speak about the last 70 years, what I was meaning was that it is in the post 2nd world era, when we have progressively used more and more antibiotics, both in medicine and in some parts of the world also extensively in farming that we have damaged out gut health without understanding the implications of the damage we were doing. The damage caused by Antibiotics is significant, but equally so are the moves towards more processed foods and massive changed in farming.

There are those who recognized the problems of leaky guts and probiotics over 30 years ago, but it is only since we sequenced the human genome, that the science has become available to back up what far sighted Doctors like Dr. Damien Downing had been saying since the 1980's. They were trying to do the best they could with what was available over 30 years ago.

I believe this new understanding of the importance of Gut Health will, in time, revolutionize health care and dietary advice as we know it. I also believe that those who work in the various fields of medicine trained out of a genuine and honest wish to help their fellow man.

This new approach is kind of asking most of mainstream intensive farming, much of food processing and all of Western Modern Medicine to admit that some of what they have been doing has been damaging to health. Little wonder they are choosing to ignore the growing tide of evidence for as long as possible.

Many of the new ideas about medicine, science and health have met with resistance from the experts of their day. Before we understood germ theory many middle class women died from child bed fever after giving birth. They were fortunate enough to be able to afford a Doctor to assist them. The Doctors' of that era had no idea they were killing their own patients when they brought bacteria on their hands from the autopsy in the morgue performed earlier the same day. Once those same Doctors understood about the importance of basic hygiene, deaths from child bed fever reduced dramatically, but is still took too long for that belief system to change and that cost many women their lives.

Change takes time.

AARA

[munchybunch in reply to AARA]

Hi Aara. I just love reading yr info. You just know so so much. Have you any ideas about faecal transplants ? We live in Australia and there is a guy here called dr barody who does them and seems to have had great success. Pls keep posting ! Thanks

[allanah in reply to munchybunch]

Nooooooo just no lol . I just couldn't x

[AARA in reply to munchybunch]

Hi munchybunch,

Re: Faecal Transplants. I have very mixed feelings The more I have read the more I find my attitudes shifting.

For those who don't know what a Faecal Transplant is, it is just what it sounds like. It is taking poo from a healthy donor and putting it into the digestive tract of a sick person, with the expectation of improving the health of the sick person.

In mainstream medicine it is usually only used in extreme circumstances, in a hospital environment. It is used in the treatment of C Diff. but usually when other treatments have failed.

At the other extreme some Gastroenterologists in USA sell DIY kits to enable you to do your own transplant, using the poo of a family member, in your own bathroom.

Between these extremes are clinics springing up, where the aim is to used screened "healthy poo" in the form of capsules to swallow.

When I knew very little my attitude (after I got back the initial yuck factor) was this sounds great and which family member am I going to ask to be my donor.

As I read more, I realized that if I had not changed my diet before the transplant, then I would not be feeding my newly acquired good bugs and any benefit would be short lived.

I then read about how this could have unintended problematic consequences. Like a transplant from a fat donor could result in the recipient gaining lots of weight.

I think the potential of having a healthier gut and the implications for health and well being in the modern world is almost beyond most peoples current comprehension, but this is a relatively new area of research.

If I had something imminently life threatening I would most certainly opt. for a faecal transplant. As I have chronic disease I am opting for the diet route right now. As our knowledge increases and techniques become more tried and better tested, I may well change my mind.

Someone has to have the courage to try new treatments, or we would never have new drugs approved. Some parts of the world are going to move forward faster than others with this sort of treatment.

What I would say is this, you need to do your own research into what is available to you in Australia. If it was me I would be asking lots of questions about the risks and unintended out comes as well as listening to the sales patter about the wonderful results. Read what previous patients have to say and if possible try to speak directly to them.

Jeff Leach, one of the founders of the American Gut Project went to live with the Hadza people ( a tribe of hunter gathers) and opted to do a DIY transplant with a turkey baster. He wrote about it in his Rewild book 2015. He would know far more about the implications then than I do now. Is he too reckless or am I too cautious?

My aim was to give you food for thought. Hope my response got you thinking.

AARA

[munchybunch in reply to AARA]

I agree. I am just open to ideas. There is a lot of talk here about stem cells too but it seems it s too early for that yet. Thanks for your comments. I love them!

[allanah in reply to AARA]

Nooooooo. Gosh the risks from awful bowel related illnesses would have to be stamped out. Other members of your family could have hepatitis with no symptoms.

Not for me!!

[allanah in reply to AARA]

I agree AARA. I hope they find the cause asap and if a diet is proved it would be marvellous.

[cappygal]

This is really helpful AARA 😊 Which of the books have you found most helpful so far? I ask as I am pondering a probiotic supplement and would like to adjust my diet further after having done the Genova GI Effects test.

[AARA in reply to cappygal]

Hi cappygal,

I know this is going to sound like a complete cop out, but what I have read comes at the subject of Gut Health from many perspectives. As such it really depends on what you need and what you hope to learn from investing your time and money in buying a book and also how well informed you are already

Do you want something theoretical written by an academic?

Are you looking for dietary advice and recipes?

Which side of the big pond do you live?

Would you prefer something written by a Brit. or an American? I think this is particularly relevant if you are after recipes, as a way of taking practical steps towards improving your own health?

If you tell me more I might make the right suggestion. Alternatively just go to Amazon Books (other retailers are available) and search for something on the Book list that interests you. Read as much as Amazon will let you, before you order and you will probably get a good idea of which authors style and content is right for you.

It is past my bedtime now so I will check my messages tomorrow to see if you came back to me.

Wishing you well.

AARA

[munchybunch in reply to cappygal]

What are the Genova GI Effects test pls?

[cappygal in reply to munchybunch]

It's a Genova Laboratories test if you look it up online. Mine was arranged through Airedale Allergy clinic but there's a clinic in the south too.

[Sandy1947]

Thanks so much for your comprehensive list! You must be a genius to be able to do all that research and not be in perfect health. You are living proof of the correlation between what you eat and an excellent brain!

[AARA]

Hi Sandy1947,

No genius at this address, just a dyslexic with a childlike curiosity who keeps on a bit like a typical 3 year old asking why, well why? If I have any skill at all, I think it is for grasping the concept, the big picture approach and seeing how seemingly unrelated issues impact on each other.

I find the concept that the root of so much of today's explosion of chronic illness, is being attributed to inflammation in the digestive tract, just mind boggling. Who would have thought we would have the potential to make such a difference to so many diseases, just by learning how to provide our bodies with the correct raw materials, in the form of the food which gives us so much pleasure.

It is so simple and yet so obvious when you focus on it, yet the more "progress" we have made in the Modern Western World the more wrong we appear to have been getting it.

How do we change farming practices, to make the food truly nutritious and health giving again? How do we find the time, money, will power and energy, to stop eating processed rubbish and go back to preparing and cooking all our food from scratch? How do we get our medical systems to stop merely suppressing our symptoms and fix the underlying root cause?

How can something be so simple at the personal level and yet be so hard to accomplish on a National and International level? Ideological change is wonderful in theory, but how do we made it happen, especially when so many of you out there are in pain, feeling just awful, cursing this vicious disease and feeling challenged simply by what occupational therapy and social workers call the "tasks of daily living"?

We just have to take life an hour at a time sometimes and do the best we can today and tomorrow, if we have the energy, we can maybe try to take a single tiny step towards making what we understand to be a healthier choice about what we are going to eat.

The only way we as individuals, have any hope of getting to a healthier future is one step and one decision at a time. I have a beautiful sea view from my window. When I look at all that water, I need to remind myself that every drop of sea water has been a raindrop at sometime. Just a single tiny raindrop, but together a powerful ocean. Try thinking of your decisions and actions as a collection of lots of tiny raindrops coming together, with the potential to make a positive difference in your life.

A year ago I was far too ill to have attempted to do the simple things I have done in the last few days. Just things healthy folk take for granted. Gradually I started making tiny changes and together they have made a bigger difference than I could ever have hoped for.

May you find those tiny changes, that you can make, to bring about a better future for you.

AARA

[munchybunch in reply to AARA]

Aww AARA you are amazing. I love people like you. I too am an avid reader and I have done lots of research into supplements etc. Keep posting pls! I m following!