William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 41

Is acid reflux really SIBO?

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Making sense of gluten-free

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Is lactose intolerance really SIBO?

Evidence is growing demonstrating that intolerance to lactose is really just yet another manifestation of SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

In a small Australian study, for instance, of 10 elderly people with lactose intolerance, 90% had SIBO (by lactulose H2 breath testing); eradication of SIBO reversed lactose intolerance in all initially SIBO-positive participants. Likewise, in an Italian study, lactose intolerance was associated with SIBO; eradication of SIBO resulted in most people being freed from lactose (as well as fructose and sorbitol) intolerance.

It is part of the disruption of the digestive process that the microorganisms of SIBO inflict: intolerance to lactose and other sugars, fat malabsorption that causes fat to pass through undigested, intolerance to nightshades and FODMAPs, excessive histamine production, bile acid beconjugation (breakdown into their components) that increases LDL cholesterol/LDL particle number. You can appreciate that the cause of intolerances to foods suffered by millions of people is not due to the food; it is due to the disruption of digestion caused by SIBO. Why else, for instance, would someone develop intolerance to tomatoes or cheese at age 40 or 50? It’s not genetic, it’s not the food; it’s the change in microbial composition and location of SIBO.

The solution therefore only begins with elimination of the foods that cause symptoms, but that alone does not address the cause. The real solution is to confirm the presence of SIBO, then eradicate it. In the Undoctored Inner Circle, we take a three-step approach:

Correct the factors that caused SIBO in the first place—e.g., acid-suppressing medications, avoid herbicide/pesticide residues in food, manage hypochlorhydria, etc.
A two-week course of herbal antibiotics such as FC Cidal and Dysbiocide coupled with efforts to disrupt the intestinal biofilm such as N-acetyl cysteine
Efforts to prevent SIBO recurrence such as a high-potency, multi-species probiotic, fermented foods, prebiotic fibers, and the unique upper gastrointestinal tract probiotic properties of L reuteri yogurt 

I am shocked at the incredible prevalence of SIBO, especially now that we have the consumer AIRE device that detects breath hydrogen indicative of upper gastrointestinal bacterial overgrowth. Study after study has also revealed the presence of SIBO in 10-40% of “normal” controls without symptoms. And ignoring SIBO is unwise, as it has long-term consequences that range from fibromyalgia to coronary disease to diverticular disease and colorectal cancer.

If you therefore have lactose intolerance or any other food intolerances, or even if you are just concerned about the possibility of having silent SIBO, join our frequent discussions on this important health topic in the Undoctored Inner Circle.

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Leeann’s spectacular Wheat Belly 10-day experience

Look at the marvelous transformation in Leeann’s appearance that developed over just the 10 days of her Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox. The lateral dimensions of her face have diminished, her cheeks are less swollen and skin has lost the seborrheic redness, and around-the-eye puffiness is gone. Just look at how wonderful and big her eyes look!

“I MADE IT! No turning back!! Down 3.4 pounds, less inflammation, less redness, sleeping better, more energy and just all around happier!

“The best part is that my GI symptoms have completely cleared up in just these few short days. I have suffered from IBS-D [irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea] since the birth of my first child, 23 years ago!”

How can losing just over 3 pounds yield such extravagant changes in appearance in such a short time? Because removing wheat/grains and our nutritional supplement program reverses inflammation body-wide, so powerful that it is clearly evident on the face.

Leann also obtained relief from irritable bowel syndrome, as many do just with the basic Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox strategies. We now know that the majority of IBS is really small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, SIBO. It is therefore likely that the basic strategies—wheat/grain removal and net carb limitation, vitamin D, efforts to cultivate bowel flora—were sufficient to reverse a mild case of SIBO.

Leann tells me that she began this lifestyle to deal with her type 2 diabetes and to avoid all the adverse health issues that can bring. While 10 days is enough to get the process of inflammation reversal going, reversing type 2 diabetes will take longer, as the process of weight loss makes for some erratic blood sugars in the early period. But she should, over time, experience dramatic reductions in insulin resistance, blood sugars, and HbA1c.

I think it is safe to say that, given the dramatic changes Leeann is experiencing on the Wheat Belly lifestyle, most of her friends and neighbors will no longer recognize her after this huge transformation.

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The best podcast on health: The Shift

 

Australian naturopath Katherine Maslen contacted me several months ago asking if I would provide an interview for her The Shift podcast series on health. I agreed and Katherine showed up on my doorstep sometime later. We sat for several hours in my dining room while she recorded my comments.

Katherine has done likewise with health experts from around the world to assemble what I think is the finest podcast series on health that I have come across. In addition to my comments, she obtained conversations from my friends, Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Leo Galland, chef Pete Evans and others with unique ideas about health, healthcare, and the modern health dilemmas we find ourselves in. The focus is mostly on nutrition and gut health with many unique ideas discussed.

Make time to listen to as many of the episodes as possible–it will be worth it.

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Blood tests: The BIG differences between “normal” and ideal

It is not uncommon for there to be considerable differences between what you are told is “normal” for a blood test and what is ideal. The differences are big enough to impair health, even increase risk for numerous diseases, even death.

Here is why labs and your doctor often provide grossly misleading interpretations of blood tests and how you can decipher the real answers. Among the examples:

Vitamin D—The lab says that blood levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D should be between 10-30 ng/ml. How did they get that value? Easy: They tested the blood levels of many people who live indoors, wear clothes, and don’t consume foods like liver that contain vitamin D. No surprise: Testing a population deficient in vitamin D provides the appearance that low vitamin D blood levels prevail. The problem is that this deficient level is regarded as “normal”—it is not. We therefore aim for the ideal level which is 60-70 ng/ml based on observations such as maximal suppression of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and maximal avoidance of cancers.
TSH—Lab reports state that a thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, level should be 0.2-5.5 mIU/L. (Some labs specify 4.5 mIU/L as the upper limit of normal.) But why? Once again, populations were tested who were largely iodine-deficient and exposed to numerous thyroid toxins such as bisphenol A (BPA), perfluorooctanoic acid, and hundreds of others that we know from numerous toxicological studies have potential to disrupt thyroid status. In other words, the “normal” range for TSH was taken by surveying a diseased population. A TSH of 0.2-5.5 mIU/L may be the prevailing level, but that should not be interpreted to mean that it is the ideal level.
HbA1c—Sometimes, “normal” is regarded as the level of a lab value that suggests that prescription medications are not yet necessary. But the lack of need for medication is far from being ideal. While lab reports tell us that a hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) should be 5.7% or less, a level associated with increased cardiovascular death and health conditions from cataracts to fatty liver, we aim for a HbA1c level that erases all this excess risk: 5.0% or less.

The divide between what labs and doctors quote as “normal” and what is ideal varies with each and every blood test, as there is no one rule to follow to know what is ideal. For this reason, stay tuned to the conversations we have here, in the Undoctored world, and in my Undoctored Inner Circle.

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Blood tests: There are BIG differences between “normal” and ideal

It is not uncommon for there to be considerable differences between what you are told is “normal” for a blood test and what is ideal. The differences are big enough to impair health, even increase risk for numerous diseases, even death.

Here is why labs and your doctor often provide grossly misleading interpretations of blood tests and how you can decipher the real answers. Among the examples:

Vitamin D—The lab says that blood levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D should be between 10-30 ng/ml. How did they get that value? Easy: They tested the blood levels of many people who live indoors, wear clothes, and don’t consume foods like liver that contain vitamin D. No surprise: Testing a population deficient in vitamin D provides the appearance that low vitamin D blood levels prevail. The problem is that this deficient level is regarded as “normal”—it is not. We therefore aim for the ideal level which is 60-70 ng/ml based on observations such as maximal suppression of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and maximal avoidance of cancers.
TSH—Lab reports state that a thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, level should be 0.2-5.5 mIU/L. (Some labs specify 4.5 mIU/L as the upper limit of normal.) But why? Once again, populations were tested who were largely iodine-deficient and exposed to numerous thyroid toxins such as bisphenol A (BPA), perfluorooctanoic acid, and hundreds of others that we know from numerous toxicological studies have potential to disrupt thyroid status. In other words, the “normal” range for TSH was taken by surveying a diseased population. A TSH of 0.2-5.5 mIU/L may be the prevailing level, but that should not be interpreted to mean that it is the ideal level.
HbA1c—Sometimes, “normal” is regarded as the level of a lab value that suggests that prescription medications are not yet necessary. But the lack of need for medication is far from being ideal. While lab reports tell us that a hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) should be 5.7% or less, a level associated with increased cardiovascular death and health conditions from cataracts to fatty liver, we aim for a HbA1c level that erases all this excess risk: 5.0% or less.

The divide between what labs and doctors quote as “normal” and what is ideal varies with each and every blood test, as there is no one rule to follow to know what is ideal. For this reason, stay tuned to the conversations we have here, in the Undoctored world, and in my Undoctored Inner Circle.

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Iron deficiency: Causes your doctor won’t tell you about

Very commonly, no cause for iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia are found: no gastrointestinal bleeding, no excessive menstrual blood loss, no hemolysis (red blood cell destruction). Your doctor tells you that there is no identifiable cause and you are therefore resigned to taking iron supplements, prescription iron, injectable iron, or even blood transfusions while the anemia often does not respond or does so only temporarily.

Here are two situations in which iron deficiency develops that are rarely addressed by doctors, but YOU can:

The phytates of wheat and grains—Modern wheat, in particular, has been selected by farmers and agricultural scientists to have greater phytate content, as phytates are pest-resistant and protect the wheat plant against fungi, mold, insects, and others. But wheat phytates also bind most of the iron you obtain through diet, supplements, or prescription iron and makes it unavailable for absorption. Iron deficiency anemia caused by wheat phytates can be profound and largely unresponsive to “treatment” but reverses promptly when all wheat and related grains are eliminated from the diet.
Autoimmune gastritis—The gliadin protein of wheat and related grains triggers an autoimmune response against the parietal cells of the stomach that produce stomach acid. Over time, cumulative destruction of the parietal cells causes insufficient stomach acid production, or hypochlorhydria, and eventually achlorhydria in which no stomach acid is produced. Hypo- and achlorhydria lead, in turn, to iron deficiency anemia, since acid is required to extract iron from food. Hypo- and achlorhydria also lead to vitamin B12 absorption, since the loss of parietal cells means that the “intrinsic factor” required for B12 absorption is no longer being produced. To make matters worse, lack of stomach acid sets you up for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, SIBO, as well as stomach cancer.

You can appreciate that, if you have been diagnosed with iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia, it is extremely unwise to not pursue the above two issues.

You can find a more extended discussion of these issues and steps you can take to address them in our Undoctored Inner Circle.

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The Wheat Belly Weight Loss Secrets Workshop

 

If you are new to the Wheat Belly lifestyle and would like to embark on an effective and powerful way to lose weight, I invite you to sign up for my Wheat Belly Weight Loss Secrets Workshop that you follow at your own pace.

The huge worldwide Wheat Belly experience has allowed thousands of people to lose 30, 50, 70 or more pounds. We do it without cutting calories or fat, without hunger, and without silly and ineffective advice like “move more, eat less.” While it begins with changes in diet, we go much further–this is why our results exceed expectations over and over again.

The Wheat Belly Weight Loss Secrets Workshop will show you:

How to apply the Wheat Belly lifestyle that frees you from hunger, reduces appetite, and reverses inflammation
What strategies beyond diet accelerate weight loss but also restore health–what you choose to eat or not eat is very important, but there are other issues that are crucial
How to break a weight loss stall
What health issues and strategies to consider if weight loss eludes you

It’s not just a diet, but a comprehensive lifestyle that restores slenderness, health, and youthfulness. The five learning modules take you through the program step-by-step with complete discussions about why each and every component of the program is crucial to your success.

Enroll for my five-module course for $149 and be prepared to have your health, life, and–of course–weight transformed. More information and signup here.

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It’s not yogurt

We have been discussing how, by fermenting dairy or coconut milk products with Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 and DSM 17938, we boost hypothalamic release of oxytocin that, in turn, yields increased dermal collagen, smooths wrinkles, accelerates healing, improves bone density, restores youthful strength and muscle, increases libido, and shuts down appetite.

Unfortunately, some people have misinterpreted this to mean that consuming yogurt in any form achieves these effects—not true. So let’s clear up this confusion.

To call something “yogurt,” by (semi-arbitrary) FDA guidelines, it must be fermented by the microorganisms Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus (unspecified strains). It can contain other fermenting species such as Lactobacillus acidophilus or Bifidobacteria species, but it must contains the first two species in order to be labeled “yogurt.” So our L. reuteri “yogurt,” if this were being sold commercially, could not be labeled as such because it was not fermented with Lactobacillus bulgaricus or Streptococcus thermophilus.

We are therefore not really making yogurt, but fermenting dairy or coconut milk with a unique microorganism to amplify bacterial counts of this specific species/strain. I’ve called it “yogurt” because it looks like yogurt, tastes like yogurt, and fits a familiar role in eating habits—but it’s NOT yogurt. And, of course, I’m not selling it to you.

So, by consuming Yoplait or Dannon or Stonyfield Farms yogurt, you will not be obtaining the L. reuteri-generated boost in oxytocin. I have nothing against these products (aside from the high sugar and/or high-fructose corn syrup content of some), but they do not provide the same benefits as our L. reuteri fermented product. Because this idea of fermenting with unique microorganisms is so new, there is no appropriate terminology for this. So I shall continue to call it yogurt for our non-commercial purposes, but don’t let that confuse you into thinking that all yogurts yield the same benefits, because they do not.

And, by the way, our “yogurt” is the beginning of an entire host of interesting possibilities in the targeted amplification of specific bacterial species and strains that yield health benefits. I foresee a time when you can take a specific strain or strains, amplify counts via fermentation to yield “yogurt,” and address various health conditions and, for instance, accelerate weight loss, reverse health conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, even improve mental and physical performance.

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