Do you have the guts to learn about your gut?

I am introducing you to the new and exciting medical discipline of functional medicine. I will share new information that has come about from years of research and published in scientific journals from around the world about why we get sick and how we can get better. I will introduce you to a new way of thinking about your own health and maybe that of your clients. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Do you have the guts to learn about your gut?

Have you ever wondered why the US spends more on healthcare than any other developed nation but, yet, we have the worst outcomes? Our chronic disease rates continue to rise despite all the money spent on research. As nurses, we should be looking into these facts and wondering what we can do to help our clients (and maybe ourselves).

I want to introduce you to the (relatively) new and exciting world of functional medicine. This is a growing discipline where practitioners actually delve into the reasons a person has a disease and learn, through sophisticated laboratory testing what will fix it. We know medications don't fix chronic diseases- they just manage the symptoms. Most doctors do not learn what actually causes a disease - they learn to manage it with medication.

So, if you are interested, I will share what I have learned from these physicians and other scientists so that you can apply it to your life. I must emphasize that I WILL NOT be practicing medicine. I am sharing information about what new ideas about diseases are being learned. You can then take this information to your health care provider to discuss options.

The first topic we can discuss is autoimmune disease. There are over 800,000 diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. Some common diseases like heart disease and cancer are now considered autoimmune diseases. This diagnosis takes about 7-10 years before symptoms occur. So, before an autoimmune disease diagnosis is made by your HCP, you will have some vague issues that occur and most practitioners and patients do not suspect the cause is coming from your gut. Yes, your gut. Your gut health is the main driver of your immune system and, consequently, your health.

When you have vague issues such as gas, bloating, weird rashes, foggy feeling, headaches, fatigue, frequent viral illnesses, constipation, etc., no one makes the connection that these symptoms are coming from your gut. Dermatologists have about 60 rashes for which they can prescribe various lotions or creams. They may even prescribe oral medications. What they never suspect is that these rashes are coming because of issues with your gut. It is fairly well known now that heart disease is not a cholesterol issue but an inflammation issue- which results because of issues with your gut.

We must mind our microbiome. What type and amounts of bacteria that are present in the gut are very important and will determine, to a large extent, how healthy we are. We want lots of good bacteria and there are 2 major ways to accomplish that proper nutrition and a decrease in toxic exposures.

What scientists have learned that is not being taught in medical schools yet is that all autoimmune diseases begin in the gut. It doesn't matter whether you have RA, Lupus, Hashimotos, MS, eczema, cancer, heart disease, or Type 1 diabetes etc. All those diseases began when your gut health started to crumble. For example: RA antibodies (CCP) will be present for 5-15 years before x-ray changes occur. During this time, you will slowly begin to have some vague symptoms but not necessarily in your joints.

Along with gut health (or lack of), toxicity has been found to be a major trigger for autoimmune diseases. These toxins come from BPA, phthalates, GMO, herbicides,fungicides, pesticides etc.

Let's talk about gluten. Here is what functional medicine scientists have learned. You can have gluten sensitivity without celiac disease. Wheat is a relatively recent addition (in the grand scheme of evolution) to our diets. We are not engineered to eat grasses and grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats etc) - we are not ruminants. Because this is true, we ALL have issues with wheat whether or not we have Celiac disease. It is a matter of how those issues are exhibited and to what degree. We have antibodies to wheat because it is a foreign "object" that is not recognized by our body. These antibodies come about because of tiny holes that are created in the lining of the gut wall when we consume these products. This is called leaky gut. So these antibodies then go about attacking various cells in your body. It could start out as general fatigue, some rashes, headaches, foggy feelings which can occur for 5-15 years before a "true" autoimmune symptoms and diagnosis is manifested.

Another issue contributing to our gut health is dairy. We are not designed to drink the milk of other mammals. It is not natural and our body will again have the same issues as with wheat. I can hear some of you loudly proclaiming that milk is needed for proper tooth and bone health. So think about other animals living in the wild. Once they are weaned, they only drink water yet they have powerful bones and teeth ( tigers, lions, elephants- right?) Humans do not need to drink milk either once they are weaned.

We have "normal" environments for our skin that have good and bad bacteria as well as viruses and fungi. We have "normal" environments that have good and bad bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live throughout the outside of our body as well as inside in our intestines. Matter of fact we have more bacteria, viruses, and fungi in our intestines than we have cells in our body. Mother Nature put them there for a reason and functional medicine doctors and other scientists have been exploring that reason for over a decade now and have come to some astounding conclusions.

When the balance of good and bad bacteria, fungi, and viruses is out of balance, you get autoimmune diseases, diabetes, cancer, or some other diseases. Even obesity can be sometimes be related to gut dysfunction. When food is not being digested properly or is inflammatory or not even food, it causes holes in your gut so that contents leak out of the tiny holes into your blood stream. This activates the immune system. These digestive products are seen as foreign and your immune system sends out the army to "arrest them". When this happens over and over again, the immune system is overloaded and other things start to happen like those weird symptoms mentioned earlier. When nothing is corrected at this stage, eventually an autoimmune disease emerges.

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Rota

About Rota, BSN, RN

I have been a critical care and emergency room nurse for over 35 years. I am now learning about how health care providers can prevent and reverse diseases through the functional medicine model. I want to share that information with all nurses so that they can advocate for their clients as well as themselves.

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Great article on the gut!!!!! I love the GI system :) It is one of the most overlooked systems. If we only knew that 70-80% of the immune system resonates from the gut.

I eat homemade yogurt for probotics but sometimes debate because it still dairy related.

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C'mon, what we pour into our bodies shouldn't be the first place we look for the cause of disease, it must be something else!

Just kidding. I can no longer count how many people I've known who have rejected the idea that what they put into their gut may be the problem behind their gut issues as well as other conditions.

I contribute my relatively great health at my age (knock on wood, I'm challenging karma here) to learning that I had celiac disease and had no choice but to change my diet. It was either give up the foods that make me ill or live in my bathroom isolated from society as well as having anemia, eczema, anxiety and depression, joint pain, no energy, over weight, and being so frequently ill with one type of inflection or another. My 30s were awful and I didn't think I'd make it to my age now let alone be healthy.

Gluten isn't the only thing I need to avoid though there is no wiggle room with that one. FODMAPs give me grief as well. Eliminating most of them gives me well being as well as ideal weight and other benchmarks etc.

Gut health is definitely the source of my health or illness.

I have no sources to back up my anecdotal evidence, but it's such common sense and I'm so fortunate that I had no choice but to heed it.

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I want to introduce you to the (relatively) new and exciting world of functional medicine.

Is this an evidence-based discipline? If so, and as a previous poster has already mentioned, it would be helpful if you could link to the relevant research that supports the many claims made in your post.

What scientists have learned that is not being taught in medical schools yet is that all autoimmune diseases begin in the gut. It doesn't matter whether you have RA, Lupus, Hashimotos, MS, eczema, cancer, heart disease, or Type 1 diabetes etc. All those diseases began when your gut health started to crumble.

(my bold)

Again, in order for me to consider these claims credible, I'd have to see the evidence that backs them up. When you say that for example all cancers starts with "crumbling gut health", that is a big claim that you are making. This is a claim that demands supporting evidence.

Why isn't what "scientists have learned" being taught in medical school (yet)? It seems to me that evidence-based medicine is normally taught in medical school.

I am now learning about how health care providers can prevent and reverse diseases through the functional medicine model.

(my bold)

I'm curious to know which diseases specifically that you think can be reversed through the functional medicine model? Do you believe an already formed cancer can be "reversed" (cured?) with the help of the gut?

Listen, I'm not arguing that having healthy eating habits isn't beneficial, but I'm not buying the simplistic theory that all the diseases you've listed "begin in the gut" or can be controlled through the gut.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

World of medicine is bigger than the USA, and it consists of much more than EBM. Acupuncture is a classic example of "functional medicine" and it works perfectly in many cases the "western allopathic" medicine deems pretty much hopeless. No efforts of EBM did any good for those suffering from fibromyalgia, irritable bowel disorder, asthenia (yep, there is such condition), certain forms of anxiety and depression and many other "functional" ailments except for making them addicted to destructive drugs. Different methods of "functional medicine" treat these people with relative ease - with no drugs at all.

I have some very politically incorrect ideas why there are pretty much no research done in the USA for proving effectiveness and safety of anything belonging to "functional medicine" while hydrocodone was apparently proven to be "safe an effective" for treatment of multiple functional pain disorders from fibromyalgia to IBD. Unfortunately, the blind belief that anything not stamped by FDA (which is the party to be blamed directly for killing more Americans than any war in the US history by allowing almost free access for highly addictive substances with little to no medical indications) is not "safe and effective" leads to nothing more than lack of trust between providers and patients. Patients are voting with their legs and credit cards, heading to Walmart and GNC and bying there supplements that can be proven or disproven to be effective, high or low quality, safe or dangerous. They don't do it simply because they want something "natural". They do it because they do not trust us, and I admit that medical professionals of the US fully deserve this distrust.

Please get on examine.com, as well as European, Chinese and Japanese medical resources. You have Google Translate for using them, and these guys do amazing things with diseases we here in America can only throw our hands in the air in desperation.

I too disagree with the idea that eating well can cure or "reverse" cancer, aging and everything in between, but fibromyalgia, IBD, muscle spasms, functional constipation, tension (and sometimes cluster as well) headaches, "general anxiety disorder" and some cases of depression are conditions which are better treated with "functional medicine" methods including nutrition than with what EBM can offer.

BTW, right now in University of Arizona there is ongoing clinical trial stage II and III being done under NCI regarding DIM (diindolmethane) beneficial effects on breast cancer development. DIM is the same substance which makes us passing a lot of gas after eating cabbage. There is massive amount of published articles regarding ts beneficial actions on estrogen and testosterone metabolism both in men and women. And this is only one example of what correct supplemets can do.

Diindolylmethane in Treating Patients With Breast Cancer - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov

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BTW, right now in University of Arizona there is ongoing clinical trial stage II and III being done under NCI regarding DIM (diindolmethane) beneficial effects on breast cancer development. DIM is the same substance which makes us passing a lot of gas after eating cabbage. There is massive amount of published articles regarding ts beneficial actions on estrogen and testosterone metabolism both in men and women. And this is only one example of what correct supplemets can do.

Diindolylmethane in Treating Patients With Breast Cancer - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov

I looked at this trial and from what I understand it involves subjects who are receiving conventional adjuvant therapy/treatment (surgery being the primary treatment for breast cancer) in the form of Tamoxifen (a selective estrogen receptor modulator). The experimental arm is also receiving an adjunct treatment in the form of diindolylmethane and the control arm gets placebo (as well as of course the Tamoxifen). Diindolylmethane is from what I gather an HDAC inhibitor and it will be interesting to see if it in combination with the SERM (Tamoxifen) will have any additional (hopefully desired) effects on breast density and serum steroid hormones.

Katie, I'm not sure if your post was in response to mine? If so, I don't really understand how the trial you linked pertains to my response to OP. I never claimed that there isn't much more to discover about possibile treatment modalities (whether it's cancer or any of the many other disease processes that OP mentioned).

My problem with OP's post is that it makes many far-reaching claims without a scintilla of evidence presented. If I understand OP's post correctly it goes like this:

OP's main claim:

"When the balance of good and bad bacteria, fungi, and viruses is out of balance, you get autoimmune diseases, diabetes, cancer, or some other diseases."

The way this happens is (according to OP):

"When food is not being digested properly or is inflammatory or not even food, it causes holes in your gut so that contents leak out of the tiny holes into your blood stream. This activates the immune system. These digestive products are seen as foreign and your immune system sends out the army to arrest them”. When this happens over and over again, the immune system is overloaded and other things start to happen like those weird symptoms mentioned earlier. When nothing is corrected at this stage, eventually an autoimmune disease emerges."

The weird symptoms:

"vague issues such as gas, bloating, weird rashes, foggy feeling, headaches, fatigue, frequent viral illnesses, constipation, etc."

When these symtoms are ignored/not treated, the following happens:

"whether you have RA, Lupus, Hashimotos, MS, eczema, cancer, heart disease, or Type 1 diabetes etc. All those diseases began when your gut health started to crumble."

(partial quotes, my bold).

Tonight I've had one of my siblings over for dinner (she's a radiation oncologist and said something about the leaky gut theory that's not suitable for print :wideyed:) and she's been telling me to stop waging war on the internet ;) and have another glass of wine instead :lol2:

Anyway, I question the validity of these claims. It reads like pseudo-science to me. If there was actual research out there that has identified the definitive cause of cancer (and diabetes type 1 and coronary disease and MS and lupus), I see an invitation to my fair city and a dinner in the company of my king and queen in the relatively near future for those researchers...

The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies and Banquets

OP:

Have you ever wondered why the US spends more on healthcare than any other developed nation but, yet, we have the worst outcomes?

Most other comparable countries with lower per capita spending but with roughly equal outcomes have some sort of single-payer, universal healthcare system in place. I personally think that defensive medicine, much higher administrative costs and paying way too much for pharmaceuticals contribute to your higher cost. Plus the fact that preventive healthcare saves money in the long run so when every single citizen is covered, that helps keeping cost down. (I've had too many glasses of wine to supply the references right now ;))

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Dear Macawake,

my post was not direct responce on yours. Rather, it was one to "show us your evidence" reaction, because, while I too think that "leaky gut" as a cause of every single ailment in human body is an exaggeration and simplistic explanation of pathology, it is something that MIGHT have grain of truth in it. Not having any evidence about it being right is not equal it being totally wrong. After all, humankind did not have hard evidence of the Sun being the center of solar system till the start of XX century (contrary to popular opinion, Copernicus, Galileo and others did essentially what Steven Hawking does right now. They tried to explain facts they had mathematically, and only one explanation which got the puzzle together was that the Sun must be in the center. But it was not direct evidence. It took to the beginning of the XX century when experiments with solar radiation to prove Einstein's theory of relativity and advanced astronomic observations during solar eclipses finally confirmed it for good. Same story happened with "ether", atoms and quite a few other things). "Leaking gut" (or, rather, migration of sensitized immune cells from gut to other organs) explains beautifully, for example, increased incidence of autoimmune diseases among people suffering from some food allergies (cow's milk, gluten and chocolate are most known examples).

I spent years hiding my pain because I knew what will happen if I tell a physician that I have fibromyalgia. I saw enough of peopel dead from overdoses at that point already. Then, in one week, I was pain-free, and three months later, pretty much cured. The method used had nothing in common with any "evidence". Yet, it worked, and later I took more than one poor soul off drugs by using it. I kind of fitted it with gate theory of pain, but every single pain physician I spoke about it dismissed it as "rubbish without evidence". Well, here I and a few others are, most relieved or even cured by that "rubbish", and there are other patients still in pain and hooked to addictive, mind-and-body destroying drugs which are supposed to be "safe and effective". Huh?

I found out about DIM from a nurse practitioner who runs local breast cancer clinic. She told me about it as if she spoke about a place where I can buy stolen goods cheap. I found out that DIM is, in fact, a bit more than controversial supplement, and I too wonder how it will work with tamoxifen (which study authors couldn't take out of equation for obvious reasons). But there are TONS of European studies regarding melatonin being helpful for cancer patients. It is ordered by physicians in Germany and Netherlands for patients with early breast cancer with hopes of recurrence prevention. Why we cannot legally and openly do the same here in the US?

Pineal Gland and Cancer—An Epigenetic Approach to the Control of Malignancy: Evaluation of the Role of Melatonin - Madame Curie Bioscience Database - NCBI Bookshelf

Melatonin Anticancer Effects: Review

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

Opioid and opiate pain media are becoming as stigmatized as psych meds.

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World of medicine is bigger than the USA, and it consists of much more than EBM. Acupuncture is a classic example of "functional medicine" and it works perfectly in many cases the "western allopathic" medicine deems pretty much hopeless. No efforts of EBM did any good for those suffering from fibromyalgia, irritable bowel disorder, asthenia (yep, there is such condition), certain forms of anxiety and depression and many other "functional" ailments except for making them addicted to destructive drugs. Different methods of "functional medicine" treat these people with relative ease - with no drugs at all.

I have some very politically incorrect ideas why there are pretty much no research done in the USA for proving effectiveness and safety of anything belonging to "functional medicine" while hydrocodone was apparently proven to be "safe an effective" for treatment of multiple functional pain disorders from fibromyalgia to IBD. Unfortunately, the blind belief that anything not stamped by FDA (which is the party to be blamed directly for killing more Americans than any war in the US history by allowing almost free access for highly addictive substances with little to no medical indications) is not "safe and effective" leads to nothing more than lack of trust between providers and patients. Patients are voting with their legs and credit cards, heading to Walmart and GNC and bying there supplements that can be proven or disproven to be effective, high or low quality, safe or dangerous. They don't do it simply because they want something "natural". They do it because they do not trust us, and I admit that medical professionals of the US fully deserve this distrust.

Please get on examine.com, as well as European, Chinese and Japanese medical resources. You have Google Translate for using them, and these guys do amazing things with diseases we here in America can only throw our hands in the air in desperation.

I too disagree with the idea that eating well can cure or "reverse" cancer, aging and everything in between, but fibromyalgia, IBD, muscle spasms, functional constipation, tension (and sometimes cluster as well) headaches, "general anxiety disorder" and some cases of depression are conditions which are better treated with "functional medicine" methods including nutrition than with what EBM can offer.

BTW, right now in University of Arizona there is ongoing clinical trial stage II and III being done under NCI regarding DIM (diindolmethane) beneficial effects on breast cancer development. DIM is the same substance which makes us passing a lot of gas after eating cabbage. There is massive amount of published articles regarding ts beneficial actions on estrogen and testosterone metabolism both in men and women. And this is only one example of what correct supplemets can do.

Diindolylmethane in Treating Patients With Breast Cancer - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov

I have done everything possible to treat my fibro. I have had it for 15 years. Diagnosed at 15. It doesn't work. I have been to countless doctors and have tried every treatment known to man that is out there. Pain meds are the only thing that even slightly works. It doesn't take away all of my pain, but its manageable. I'm not addicted. I take 1-2 a day.

The problem is we don't do enough research. Some day they will find out fibromyalgia is actually an autoimmune disease. I 100% believe that. I get terrible flare ups if I take antibiotics or prednisone for anything. I've tried probiotics. No relief.

I'm tired of hearing about how awful pain medication is, when it's how I'm able to function and be a productive citizen in society. I can contribute, be off disability, and pay taxes. I can support my family and be there for my kids. I can now attend their activities where 5 years ago I could barely get out of bed.

Addiction is a separate issue and it boggles my mind that nobody can seem to figure out how to treat it. It's so plain and clear to me. These people have issues with addiction before the pills. There is an underlying need for them to feel better. The issue is the insurance companies don't want to spend the money to treat it. So, it's made worse and people die.

It's all about the money. Not everybody who takes a Norco is addicted. It is a good med for certain situations. Unfortunately the media won't let up on their views and I fear someday, I will be right back to where I started. Back on disability, laying in bed, because it's too painful to move, because apparently fibro is in my head and I'm an addict.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.
I have done everything possible to treat my fibro. I have had it for 15 years. Diagnosed at 15. It doesn't work. I have been to countless doctors and have tried every treatment known to man that is out there. Pain meds are the only thing that even slightly works. It doesn't take away all of my pain, but its manageable. I'm not addicted. I take 1-2 a day.

The problem is we don't do enough research. Some day they will find out fibromyalgia is actually an autoimmune disease. I 100% believe that. I get terrible flare ups if I take antibiotics or prednisone for anything. I've tried probiotics. No relief.

I'm tired of hearing about how awful pain medication is, when it's how I'm able to function and be a productive citizen in society. I can contribute, be off disability, and pay taxes. I can support my family and be there for my kids. I can now attend their activities where 5 years ago I could barely get out of bed.

Addiction is a separate issue and it boggles my mind that nobody can seem to figure out how to treat it. It's so plain and clear to me. These people have issues with addiction before the pills. There is an underlying need for them to feel better. The issue is the insurance companies don't want to spend the money to treat it. So, it's made worse and people die.

It's all about the money. Not everybody who takes a Norco is addicted. It is a good med for certain situations. Unfortunately the media won't let up on their views and I fear someday, I will be right back to where I started. Back on disability, laying in bed, because it's too painful to move, because apparently fibro is in my head and I'm an addict.

((((I am sorry for what you are going through))))

But, I guess, you too know why research in pain perception disorders' pathology is shunned down in the US. And, BTW, how exactly do you think so many peole can be relieved from "underlying need to get better" if very few of them have any motivation or willingness to do pretty much anything except for popping a pill or two? Neither medicine, nor goverment can do that, it is up to every human being. We can't start to dilute table salt with antidepressants.

If you tried "everything known" for fibro but never left USA, it means you never expored options in countries where it is routinely treated by entirely other means and way more successfully. Most of these options are sociocultural phenomena not practiced in the USA except in ethnic districts. AFAIK, there is only one or two commercially available good Russian "banyas" in the whole NYC, which uses the same "thermomechanical shock" principle as Japanese public bath (which do not exist in the USA, even in SF, although there is one in every city block in Tokyo). I understand that I was probably just very lucky to get three carefree months in Japan and not everybody can afford it. But this is what I recommend my patients, in less "shocking" way to begin with. It works if done diligently for several months.

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I'm not going to pretend that I'm educated enough not articulate enough to participate in the direction this discussion has taken but I do want to say that it's not simply about eating right or even the unaccepted theory of leaky gut syndrome. It's about the impact of mistreatment of a significant organ on the health of the rest of the body.

People are funny. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to be born without the genetic odds against us, we go on to destroy our lungs, cardiovascular system, liver, kidneys and our gut simply by how we eat, drink and smoke. We believed for decades that eggs caused heart disease (couldn't be the ton of refined sugar and chemical laden food we enjoy). Seriously, eggs? Here, have a low fat Twinkie. There was plenty of EBM to support, wasn't there? Now it's too late for those who bought it.

Now we're going to debate whether abusing another organ is something to consider, or to demand proof first?

Does it cause everything under the sun? The answer doesn't need to hold up serious consideration or even adoption. We have the EBM that inflammation is an underlying precursor, if not the only one, to much of our disease processes. So why does the theory of throwing crap down our gullet directly into a fragile organ instigate such resistance?

Personally, I didn't wait around for EBM to prove what is common sense. I didn't wait to heed something so logical, simple and within my means to implement immediately. That's not to say I follow a perfect regimen but I'm not in denial when I do indulge or fall off the wagon.

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