Tag Archives: Antifungal Drug Treatment

Questions & Answers

Para-Cresol: Clostridium Difficile’s Chemical Weapon

There is a very interesting study about Clostridium difficile (C. diff) that’s worth reading.

C. diff is a bacteria that we all have. However, in some people, C. diff can go ballistic in response to a course of antibiotics. This is another reason I am not a fan of the routine use of antibiotics.

I remember producing a video some time ago about antibiotic usage, particularly in America. Back in the ’50s, antibiotic use was so common that some women carried the medication in their purse.

If anyone had a cough or sniffle, out came the antibiotics. Antibiotics were touted as cure-all drugs that could cure any disease. Now, we know that they probably created more diseases than they cured. Be very, very careful about antibiotic usage. I’m absolutely convinced that a time will come when antibiotics are never used again, and their use will be seen as a dark period in the history of medicine. I’m talking a hundred years from now, not in the next five.

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In this study, Dr. Lisa Dawson from the London Tropical School of Medicine and Hygiene discovered that C. diff produces a chemical called para-Cresol. This chemical smothers and kills other surrounding bacteria but doesn’t harm C. diff. That’s obviously a competitive advantage and helps C. diff grow to very high levels. When Dr. Dawson made a mutant form of C. diff that does not produce para-Cresol and put it in the gut of mice, she discovered that this strain of C. diff had plenty of other bacteria growing around it. It seems that para-Cresol is what allows C. diff to ramp up production without very much competition from other gut bacteria.

C. diff is one of the very few conditions where a fecal transplant has shown to work reasonably well. In many cases, I don’t think fecal transplants are worth the $20,000 price tag, but if you have C. diff, it’s probably worth it.

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Questions & Answers

What You Need To Know About Arsenic And The Gut Flora

I read a fascinating study about the impact of arsenic on the microbiome. Professor Anne Hoen did the study out of her lab at Dartmouth.

Dr. Hoen studied the effects of small amounts of arsenic on the microbiome of rats. She discovered that arsenic had a dramatic impact on how the bacteria in the gut functioned. From there, Dr. Hoen decided to do a study of the effects of arsenic on the infant microbiome.

This study was conducted in New Hampshire, a state known to have a significant amount of arsenic in the ground and groundwater. The arsenic is naturally occurring, but it enters private wells. Of course, people who drink this water, including pregnant and nursing women, are exposed to the arsenic.

What they discovered is that when babies are exposed to arsenic, their microbiome is disrupted. Arsenic kills some of the gut bacteria in the infant gut.

Further readings:

My recommendation is to get a good quality water filter, whether you live in New Hampshire or not. The water filter will remove chemicals like chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins, and other toxic compounds.

The take-home message from this study is to have your water assessed if you live in an area with naturally occurring arsenic.

If the lab analysis of your water shows significant level of heavy metals, have a hair analysis done as well.

I once had a client who was not improving over time. A sample of the hair on his head showed very little. When we requested an analysis of a pubic hair sample, we found elevated mercury and copper levels.

Copper and other metals like mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead are attracted to a particular protein on the cell surface. Copper has a very high affinity for that particular receptor. If we see an elevated copper, we have a high index of suspicion that the patient’s got a heavy metal problem. We can then consider doing a provocation test to see if the patient is going to dump a large chunk of metal. Essentially, we’ve found a potential cause for poor health.

Cutting to the chase, don’t let your children drink water if it’s contaminated. Get the water checked if you’ve got a well. If there are health problems in the family, get some hair analysis to rule out possible heavy metal contamination.

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Questions & Answers

The Key To Gaining Weight On An Anti-Inflammatory Diet

“How do I gain weight on a seborrheic dermatitis diet?”

Seborrheic dermatitis is a chronic skin condition that often affects the scalp. One of the treatments for seborrheic dermatitis is to follow an anti-inflammatory diet.

If you have seborrheic dermatitis, it is particularly important to avoid bad fats like those found in deep-fried foods and takeout. Following the Standard American Diet (SAD) is not recommended for people with seborrheic dermatitis.

A seborrheic dermatitis diet includes an emphasis on fresh food.

If I had seborrheic dermatitis, I would start with getting a comprehensive stool analysis. I would want to know what imbalance exists and determine the levels of beneficial bacteria in my gut. I’d also be on the lookout for yeast, parasites, and any dysbiosis.

Many people with dermatitis have got dysbiosis. They’ve got lots of harmful bacteria circulating throughout their gut. Often, they’ll have bad breath as well and a coated tongue.

Further readings:

Stool testing and appropriate treatment are essential for effective management of seborrheic dermatitis. I also recommend digestive enzymes. I find pancreatic enzymes, in particular, really help people with seborrheic dermatitis.

A seborrheic dermatitis diet would probably very similar to the one I eat. Oily fish like mackerel, tuna, herring, and salmon offer the right kinds of fat.

The best way to gain weight while following a seborrheic dermatitis, or anti-inflammatory, diet is to cut the junk out of your meal plan. Start eating healthier and healthier will adding supplements like omega-3 fatty acids and probiotics to your daily routine. I’d also recommend taking fat-soluble supplements like vitamins A, D, E, and K. I’ve found vitamin A to be particularly helpful for dermatitis.

Check to see if you have any food allergies. Many people with seborrheic dermatitis have got an allergy.

If you’ve got a runaway, out-of-control skin, and you see no improvement despite improving your gut health, get tested for leaky gut and food allergies. For food allergy testing, we are interested in IgE and IgG antibodies.

Take the founds that are causing peaks in these antibodies out of your diet.

You’re not going to be able to gain weight if your gut is in poor shape. By improve your gut flora, your bowel habits will improve along with your energy and sleep patterns. Taking this approach has worked for a lot of my clients. I hope it will work for you too.

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Questions & Answers

Is The Carnivore Diet The Key To Losing Weight?

Does the carnivore diet work for weight loss?

You can find a lot of good information on this topic by reading Chris Kresser online. He provides excellent, balanced information about several diets, including keto, paleo, and carnivore diets.

A carnivore diet is built around beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, and eggs. In some cases, dairy is also included to a limited extent.

I heard from several viewers on my YouTube channel that the carnivore diet is the way to go. I’m sure that it can be helpful in the short-term, but I think a long-term carnivore can lead to problems.

If we go way back, there are no groups of people who lived solely on meat. That type of eating pattern didn’t exist. It’s a fallacy to think the carnivore diet the the “natural” human diet. That is simply not true. Chris Kresser writes exceptionally well about that.

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For example, the Canadia Inuit would go to great lengths looking for lichen, berries, and other foods they could use to supplement the seal meat they ate. Most tribes have always foraged for carbohydrates to eat in addition to meat.

It’s a myth that our ancestors lived by roasting huge steaks over open fires.

If you look at what a carnivore diet does to your gut over the long term, the colon will lose out a bit. Meat is almost always exclusively digested higher up in the GI tract. As a result, there is not much residue left in the stool. It’s also a very low fiber diet.

It’s been shown that within 48 hours of starting a carnivore diet, the gut microbiome starts to change. I don’t like that at all.

For those people who promote the carnivore diet, I’d like them to show me someone who has been eating like that for forty years. I’d want to know what their gut looks like. What is their blood pressure like? How are their liver and kidneys doing? How has their heart managed all that animal fat?

I’ve been following the Mediterranean diet for forty plus years, and my heart and circulation are in fantastic shape.

I believe meat is an important part of the diet, but it should be consumed in small amounts. I think the carnivore diet can cause problems with vitamin and minerals levels over the long-term. I would worry about calcium, magnesium, and manganese, to give a few examples.

With my vegan patients, many will add some dairy or lean meats back into their diet after five years or thereabouts. Their B12 levels had become so low that they were starting to feel sick.
I think that the carnivore diet would also be hard to tolerate for more than five to seven years. I couldn’t stomach eating meat for breakfast for the rest of my life.

The carnivore diet may be an effective way to lose weight in the short-term, but I think the keto diet is a better option. If you wanted to do the carnivore diet for a short period, then you could slowly add some vegetables and fruit when you reach your weight-loss objective. But, for overall health, an all-meat diet is not the way to go.

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Questions & Answers

The Impact Of Sugar On The Gut

Can too much sugar affect your gut?

Absolutely. Too much sugar can wreck your gut.

Sugar, as you probably have realized by now, is highly addictive. When you start hitting seven teaspoons or more a day, the addiction becomes very strong.

I know some people are so addicted to sugar that it’s almost impossible for them to come off it. Sugar has demonstrated addictive qualities like narcotics. That’s how strong it is for some people.

But, I can assure you once you get through the cravings stage, you won’t want to add any more to your diet. As you focus on eating fruit rather than sweets, you’ll be even less inclined to eat a high-sugar diet.

Further readings:

Sugar can damage your gut in many ways. When your intake is seven teaspoons or more of sugar, the body has difficulty processing it properly. As a result, a significant amount of sugar passes into the colon, where it can cause intense fermentation followed by gas and bloating.

Sugar that hasn’t been digested properly will also prevent good bacteria from sticking to the colon wall. As a result, there is a reduction in the levels of beneficial bifidobacteria.

Lower bifidobacteria accounts are associated with fatigue, which can trigger a desire for sugar, and the cycle continues.

If that’s the cycle you’re in, I recommend intervening to prevent health problems over the long term. Sometimes replacing white sugar with a little bit of honey is a relatively easy first step.

Refined sugar is not good for your gut. It’ll cause a mess that’s not worth it in the long run.

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