Here are a few highlights from a few of my favorite interviews on the Better Belly Project 2.0: Crushing the Critters, Plugging the Leaks, & Balancing the Biome for Your Best Body Ever
Summer’s goal has been to create a great resource with a few different tracks to make it easier for you to navigate the information: Gut Health Basics, Gut-Brain Axis, Wellness Professionals, Fermentation, and Microbiome & Probiotics.
Dr. Elisa Song: Leaky Gut and Your Child (applicable for children and us adults too)
There’s this huge exponential increase in pediatric acute neuropsychiatric syndrome, which can be triggered by bugs in our gut, by toxins, strep and Lyme, but we are susceptible because our immune systems are not working well, right? When we get exposed to these abnormal bugs, our immune system should be able to take care of them. It’s not like there’s more strep around than there used to be when you and I were kids, but how our kids are reacting is totally different, and that’s because our gut – which is the heart of our immune system, it’s the heart of our nervous system – when our gut is dysregulated with dysbiosis and leakiness, our immune system can’t work right, it can’t ward off these infections, and our brain can’t work right.
Kirin Krishnan: Probiotics, Microbiology and the Microbiome. This interview is quite contraversial and while I do not agree with everything discussed, I do respect his expertise and do like the research I’ve seen on the spore-based bacillus strain found in his product called Megaspore. The background story of the Bacillus endospores is fascinating.
I first heard Kirin present on some of this 2 years ago at a New York conference and I’ve been reading and watching the research since. He shares this:
- No probiotics other than the spore-based bacillus strain work (found in his product Megaspore), there is no research showing they do and we just poop them out. Here is my input on this: the research on humans is far from clear and there are mixed results – many 2017 studies show clear benefits and other don’t. Could it be the wrong probiotic for the particular condition or that person at that time?
- All probiotics other than spore-based bacillus strain work are destroyed by stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, bile and the immune system. Here is my input on this: why do probiotics work for so many people
- Fermented foods do not deliver any probiotics (based on the above statement) – just organic acids and food for the microbiome.
- And much more (like why are probiotics stored are in fridge)
We know know so much about the microbiome and how important it is for anxiety, depression, inflammation and overall health but we clearly have much to learn about using probiotics in humans. I hope this interview gets you thinking. I’ve added him to my list of experts to interview so I can really pick his brain on all this!
Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo: Genetic factors that contribute to digestive health. She shares about the COMT polymorphism and anxiety, and the ATG1601 gene and IBS/Crohn’s disease:
If you take too many methyl groups, you have that one [COMT] plus you have this VDR polymorphism to do with Vitamin D receptors, you can get super anxious from taking your B vitamins.
ATG1601: that confers an increased risk in Crohn’s disease or IBS because it’s involved with the breakdown of cells, the lysosomal breakdown of cells. If that’s overactive, then you’re going to have this inflammatory process going on in the gut.
And shares plenty of gems on FUT2 (and a higher need for bifidobacterium), HLADQ2 (and gluten issues). the GAD gene and watching glutamine intake, plus some of the interpretation services she uses.
And in case you missed my interview on Sunday or if there was confusion because of the broken link (Summer sends her apologies about that!)
Low zinc, social anxiety/pyroluria and the gut by yours truly. The majority of my interview is about pyroluria and the gut (and I’ve shared snippets about zinc and the gut here and how exhausting pyroluria can be here) but I also talk about collagen and gelatin and how they can potentially lower your serotonin levels because they do not contain tryptophan:
If you lower your serotonin levels, you could potentially feel more anxious and more depressed. If you have just started using collagen or gelatin, and your anxiety or your depression has increased, or your insomnia has suddenly got worse, the way to counter that is to stop the gelatin or the collagen, and see if the symptoms go away, or possibly add in some tryptophan to see if that’s going to now counter the fact that the gelatin and the collagen doesn’t contain tryptophan.
I’m mentioning serotonin and tryptophan here, but the other mechanisms at play, other ways that collagen or gelatin could increase your anxiety is that it does contain histamines, and that could be stimulating. The glutamate connection could be an issue. The other issue could be high arginine levels. There also seems to be some connection between glycine and increasing your oxalate levels, which can make you more anxious, as well.
I hope you enjoy the interviews on Better Belly Project 2.0
Let us know if you have feedback or questions and do share your favorite interviews and some gems you learned.
Thank you for all do you, Trudy. I’m wondering if you can address what the cause of high anxiety may be with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). CVS affects the sympathetic nervous system and causes anxiety (sometimes very high) which can trigger a cyclic vomiting episode. Is there a way to lessen this anxiety in order to decrease the frequency of cyclic vomiting episodes? Thank you!
Elizabeth
I don’t have any experience with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome except a few people finding a possible connection to pyroluria (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/pyroluria-prevalence-associated-conditions/). I have seen a number of pyroluria clients that had have extreme nausea and some severe vomiting, and they find this and the anxiety goes away when on the pyroluria protocol.
This lab does the urine test https://www.dhalab.com/shop/kryptopyrrole-quantitative/ but just be aware that false negatives do occur and I use the questionnaire (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/pyroluria-questionnaire-from-the-antianxiety-food-solution/) and response to the supplements.
Other areas to look into: vagus nerve support (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/vagus-nerve-rehab-gaba/) and Ehlers Danlos syndrome (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/joint-hypermobility-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-pyroluria/) as there are dysautonomia connections here too with possible tie-backs to pyroluria.
With anxiety I also always look into low GABA and low serotonin and address with GABA and tryptophan if needed.
Please do come back with an update if you find solutions
Elizabeth
I just came across this article where co-enzyme Q10 and L-carnitine has been shown to help many with CVS https://www.hormonesmatter.com/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome-mitochondrial-dysfunction/
Phillipa mentions this in the comments:
“The doses described in the paper are:
Co-enzyme Q10: Participants were treated with co-enzyme Q10 (ubiquinone) in liquid or gel capsule form (from a variety of brands) at a starting dose of 10 mg/kg/day, or 200 mg, divided twice a day, whichever is smaller.
• L-carnitine: Participants were treated with Carnitor brand or generics at a starting dose of 100 mg/kg/day divided BID, or 2 grams twice a day, whichever is smaller.”
The article/study mentions cyproheptadine/Periactin which is an antihistamine, as well as Amitriptyline/Elavil which is similar to an SRNI. Because of the side-effects of these medications I’d err on the side of caution and look at a dietary approach to lower histamine (if needed) and figure out if low serotonin and/or low catecholamines are an issue and address with tryptophan and/or tyrosine if they are. I use the questionnaire and trial method https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/how-to-do-an-amino-acid-trial-for-anxiety/
Keep in mind that the nutrients in the pyroluria protocol do help to make the neurotransmitters so they may be enough i.e. the amino acids may not be needed too.