Kiran Krishnan “ Your
Friendly Bacteria are your Greatest Health Ally”
Kiran is a self- confessed geek who has been researching the
gut microbiome for the last 12 years, working at product development and
clinical research. He has worked in the microbiology/ food safety area for 20
years. He wants to understand the role bugs play in wellness. He has 11 human
clinical trials on his probiotic formulation going on currently. The vast majority of probiotics on sale are based
on assumptions that a collective effect is of benefit, when only the individual
probiotics have been studied, whilst the combination of several of these in a
pill have not been studied. As Kiran says, we don’t know if they compete with
each other or are antagonistic to each other. I think his approach is much
needed.
Humans are fascinatingly complex large animals. Our bodies can adapt to abuse and just keep on coping and adapting and coping some more. Our brains are particularly amazing.
Humans are fascinatingly complex large animals. Our bodies can adapt to abuse and just keep on coping and adapting and coping some more. Our brains are particularly amazing.
How is it that humans are so spectacular? In 2007 the human
microbiome project was begun with a $150 million contribution of funding by the
U.S. government. It’s been found that we use 3.5 million bacterial genes for
adaptions including increasing the capacity of our brain. We have incorporated
bacterial DNA in a way that prevents disease in a few different ways: 1) by coding for hormones and proteins ( eg
serotonin is produced by gut bacteria) 2) by using Micro RNA which can turn off
and on genes 3) by bacterial metabolites our bodies need. Eg cellulase: we eat plants
made of cellulose. We can not make the cellulase enzyme to digest them but our
colonies of bacteria can. We are omnivores who can eat a whole range of things
but often we can only get benefit from them because bacteria in us process and
break down the food. We are picking up DNA from new bacteria all the time.
Japanese people have developed a capability to digest seaweed thanks to their
ingestion of related bacteria with sushi.
Modern life is attacking our microbiome. Think WiFi, antibiotics,
food additives (preservatives colours and flavours) body care and cleaning products ( shampoos,cosmetics, cleansers and perfumes with
rare exceptions are all toxic) and of course the farm chemical residues and GMos
in all processed “foods ”. Birth by
C-section means baby does not get inoculated with good bacteria from the
parents through the natural birth canal and this is devastating to the child’s
future health. Immunization and formular
feeding only further the damage.
Now we are realizing how many diseases are related to a
damaged microbiome. Alzheimer’s , Parkinsons diabetes, obesity and mood disorders
are the result of a messed up or “dysbiotic” microbiome which can begin a disease process way before
the signs of disease show up. For eg every Parkinson’s sufferer had
constipation for many years before the neurological symptoms began.
Fecal transplants FT ( implanting the fecal matter from a healthy person into someone with a chronic illness) have revealed a lot of new information: A very thin lady who ran marathons regularly suffered from colitis. Doctors wanted to perform surgery on her bowel. Someone suggested a FT, which she went ahead with. Her colitis cleared up within a few days but a month later she had gained a lot of weight. On the same diet and the same exercise routines the lady became chubby for the first time in her life. It turned out the donor of the FT was overweight. In another case, a rat received a FT from a patient with Alzheimer’s and autism who walked in circles all day. The rat began to walk in circles all day too. Another patient had a strange gait all his life. A FT cured the palsy and corrected his gait. Another example involves an autistic child who had no speech. Two weeks after a FT he began speaking normally.
Fecal transplants FT ( implanting the fecal matter from a healthy person into someone with a chronic illness) have revealed a lot of new information: A very thin lady who ran marathons regularly suffered from colitis. Doctors wanted to perform surgery on her bowel. Someone suggested a FT, which she went ahead with. Her colitis cleared up within a few days but a month later she had gained a lot of weight. On the same diet and the same exercise routines the lady became chubby for the first time in her life. It turned out the donor of the FT was overweight. In another case, a rat received a FT from a patient with Alzheimer’s and autism who walked in circles all day. The rat began to walk in circles all day too. Another patient had a strange gait all his life. A FT cured the palsy and corrected his gait. Another example involves an autistic child who had no speech. Two weeks after a FT he began speaking normally.
Kiran attends about 45 conferences a year on the microbiome and
absorbs and reports on the latest scientific findings. Increasing the diversity
of our microbiome is deemed to be most important. This word diversity is
popping up everywhere. Examples from my world: we are finding that a mix of 17 species of cover
crop plants makes a way healthier soil than just 3; the more diversity in a garden the more
resilient it is, the more diverse ingredients in a compost heap the better the
compost grows plants. So the
advice is to eat a varied diet. They say that our ancestors ate 400 to 600
types of food throughout the year, while we tend to subsist on about 30 foods,
available year round. My personal hunch is that a small range of food types is
OK when grown in a very healthy environment , (ie a soil alive with large
numbers and great diversity of microbes)
These foods of provenance will be covered in really good bacteria and
perhaps give you the huge diversity of
bacteria you require to ingest for health on a daily basis. Why do I think this?
Well, Weston A Price on his travels to isolated native people in the early
1900s described incredibly healthy folk in Swiss glacial villages eating only
rye bread and cheese and butter for most of the year, but the butter was
extremely high in vitamin A. These people had no fruit and vegetables in their
diet at all as they lived above the snow line and the summer was very short.
They had only a little beef and milk to break the monotony of their cheese and
ryebread staples. He also visited
Islands north of Scotland where all that would grow was oats, and the people
were again in superb health, on nothing but oats and fish.
Within the M’Biome there seems to be KEYSTONE species.
A study done on the antibiotic Amoxyllin
showed that an hour after a dose of Amoxyllin, 99% of gut bacteria in
humans are decimated. But after 12 hours
the bacteria begin to bounce back. Of
course, the question is what types of bacteria and in what ratios? Usually
nasty opportunistic bacteria breed up into large populations in the absence of
competition and this is how health problems arise. The researcher very
interestingly found that each of many bacteria he incubated individually with
the antibiotic survived, but a collection of these different bacteria all died
on exposure to the AB. Kiran hypothesizes that there are “key stone” species
that are like pillars that hold up and protect the entire microbiome….perhaps
they produce metabolites that most of the M’biome use? So it seems that the M’biome functions as an
elaborate ecology, and if you kill some significant species the whole lot
collapses. Like if earth worms died out due to climate change, or honey bees became extinct due to pesticides, where would this leave us? Struggling with no wetting soil, raging CC and a very limited diet.
You and I have very
different microbiomes because our mother’s gut floras were different. There is
only a 30% similarity between people’s microbiomes. One thing that is the same,
we are exposed to good bacteria in the environment that have the capacity to
survive our gastric systems ( most bacteria coming in do not survive this) and
once in the gut, hatch out of their cacoon that may have protected them for millions of years prior to entry into our
mouth. So they hatch in the small intestine and go to work for us. Some of the
best bacteria for soil and us are in the Bacillus family. One example is Bacillus Subtilis. Their
natural home is in the gut but out in the environment it forms an endospore, a thick
calcified armour, where it may survive the passage of time thorough all sorts
of extremes of weather/PH/ Salt concentration, in other words….” Habitat”. Some
of these endospores have been found still viable in 250 million year old salt
crystals. They have been successfully plated (brought back to living, breeding
condition on a petri dish) after all that time. Another Jurassic Park- type
event occurred when the stomach contents of a fossilized honey bee encased in
amber was drilled out and some organisms were successfully plated after 50
million years. The amazing powers of
bacillus don’t stop there. Kiran went back into war records to discover that
the German army fighting in North Africa were being decimated by dysentery.
They noticed when the locals started feeling sick they ran and looked for dried
camel dung and ate it! They would get better very quickly. Camel dung was sent
back to Germany and microbes identified. Bascillus Subtilis was discovered in
the dung and found to be protective
against dysentery. It has been marketed
as a cure for dysentery for the last 60 years! So
these Bacillus are like the Jeddhi knights who get through our stomach juices
in their protective armour, then lodge
in the duodenum to emerge and fix our gut flora for us. They do a thing called Quorum
Sensing …they find over grown and pathogenic bacteria, sit next to them and
produce about 25 kinds of antibiotics to kill them off. They then produce
substances like prebiotics which breed up the good bugs that are left. These
are amazing bugs.
Another keystone pillar species is Bacillus Clausii, a
fabulous bacillus which has been around for millions of years also. B Clausii has been a prescription drug since 1958, it
fights salmonella and upper respiratory infections . It very powerful at boosting our mucosal immune system . It up-regulates
your immune system and fights off bad bacteria and has been marketed in Latin
America and Europe since 1958.
Consuming fermented vegetables as in sauerkraut and Kimchee
on a daily basis is like taking probiotc pills but far greater numbers and often
diversity of bacteria is found in fermented foods. The
veges
have to be organic to have the lactobacillus on them that starts the
fermentation off in the right way. Home made probiotics are cheaper of course
than pharmacy pills. Sometimes though, very rare, very beneficial microbes are
discovered and put into pills for sale. I may buy some. Getting great sets of
organisms given to us by friends such as Haydn Gunningham and Brent Burns was a
turning point for our composting operations in the early days, their donations really
helped us to make a You Beaut compost forever more, as did collecting a
teaspoon of soil from old growth forest, so indeed , why not open up
my digestive tract to a potentially wonderful new species which may colonize
it and do me a world of good?
It is also important to consume PRE biotic foods, which
contain the indigestible fiber which make it through to our colon to feed the
colonies of bacteria which use it for food. Fermenting this resistant starch , the good
bugs turn it into beneficial acids like
butyrate, as mentioned in a previous blog on the Dr Stephen Hawrelak workshop. Looking at traditional cultures, (
although not many are left) may reveal more practices which boost the
microbiome. Indigenous peoples ate a huge range of food and also did not (or do not ) live in a society
that is based around killing bacteria.
Glyphosate is an insane example of this, it is an antibiotic which kills
the good bacillus preferentially, but leaves the negative E coli, salmonella
and botulism to thrive ( and proliferate they will, as they are unchecked by the absent good guy bacteria ).
Inside us is a surface area 150 times higher than our skin,
covered in mucous which is populated by zillions of bacteria. These trap
substances coming in from the environment, examine them make decisions : welcome them through, tolerate them or mount a fight ? This first thick band of
bacteria living in the mucosal layer are a protective coating for the gut
lining, which is only one cell thick ( the lining cells are called epithelial cells) .
There is another band of denser, thicker mucous called Mucin 2 right next to the
epithelial cells which is devoid of bacteria, it is a “no go zone”. This layer
can be broken down by bad bacteria. Dysbiotic flora can make holes between the epithelial
cells, and BT toxin from GM corn can make holes right through the cells. In either
case we call this condition "leaky gut".
Good bacteria actually feed us the proteins which form tight
secure junctions between membrane cells throughout our body. If the epithelial
cells sense any bacteria in Mucin 2, or bacterial components or half digested
food, clostridia, toxins etc near them, they freak out and call up an army to
fight them. The ensuing battle causes INFLAMMATION which further destroys the
gut lining as collateral damage. Lipo poly saccharides (
LPS) is a toxin produced by pathogenic bacteria, which enters the blood stream and causes a inflammation response.
Chrones disease, irritable bowel disorder and many more digestive disorders are
driven by damage to the mucosal immune system. The genes for the manufacture
of the 40 proteins that create tight junctions between the cells are turned off
and on by bacteria. The structure of the mucous layer is controlled by
bacteria. This bacterial layer is called by Kiran “Ground Zero of disease” because the
root cause of the all chronic disease is due to problems in the mucosal layer
and tight junctions in the gut.
In a double blind placebo controlled trial of his probiotic formula they took normal, healthy, young (av.23 year old) college students in the prime of their
lives. Surprisingly 55% of them were found to have leaky gut. The researchers
got them to eat a meal (from McDonalds I believe) and soon after measured the
inflammatory cytokines in their blood. Chemical markers of inflammation in the form of 12 kinds of cytokines go through the roof whenever someone with leaky gut eats a meal. "CD 14" activation
has now been shown to be the primary driver of many disorders, it sets off the
pathology that causes most illness in fact. Traces of CD 4 inflammation marker were still in the blood of the students with leaky gut 2 weeks later.......it took more than 2 weeks to recover from that one meal.
In real life however we keep going though the drive thru….. we keep eating
these meals, and the body never recovers.
Kiran asked himself “Can
we ingest a bacteria that heals and
seals the gut lining? If we can do that and stop the flow of toxins into the
bloodstream, can we allow the body to recover? ” In the college students there was a 60%
reduction in the inflammation markers after 30 days on the probiotic. No
dietary interventions were done in the study. A month on Kiran’s Probiotic also led to a 40% reduction of tricglycerides ( liver fat),
meaning the liver was not under the same burden as before in trying to get the triglycerides out of the
blood. On the subject of the liver,
there was a study done on rats . They were fed the weakest solution of
glyphosate, it was in parts per trillion. The rats developed non alcoholic
fatty liver disease ( NAFLD). The FDA and FSANZ (food safety authorities) allow
humans to be exposed to levels of glyphosate 470,000 times higher than the
levels which gave the rats NAFLD, when adjusted for body weight. NAFLD leads to
liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver etc. The gut permability changed MCP1 ,
which indicates inflammation in the gut lining. The scientists saw a significant reduction in MCP1 after 30
days on the probiotic.
Inflammatory
cytokines are the driver of Parkinson’s, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and so on.
Bacillus Subtilis reduced inflammatory markers such as CD 14 cytokines and triglycerides,
signalling a significant reduction in mucosal immune response.
Obesity
Obesity
Another aspect of the study was they looked at the hormone
Ghrelin, the hunger hormone that signals you to eat. It should drop when the stomach is full . A constant high
level of this hormone is linked to obesity. When the students were hungry
Ghrelin was measured as “high “which is normal, but a 2000 calorie meal did
nothing to drop the Ghrelin level in the student’s blood. After 30 days on the
probiotic formula that Kiran is testing,
this hormone dropped by 50% after
eating the same 2000 calorie meal, meaning the communication between the gut
and the brain via the vagus nerve seems to have been re-established. Lipopolysaccharide
is a toxin produced by bad bacteria and is known to interfere with
communication between the gut and the brain, and the ghrelin signals. Seratonin plays a role here too, because as
it increases, this triggers those “stop eating“ signals.
Bacillus Clausii and B Subtilis both work to re- establish
regulatory T cells. These cells dampen an over enthusiastic immune response (
the cause of asthma, excema, hay fever and food allergies all the way up to
auto immune disease like Lupus, Chrones disease etc) Seratonin production is
also stimulated by our champion spore forming bacilli. They also boost
populations of another group of good bacteria, the Akkermansia . Akker monitors
the outside world . Lean people with low inflammation , good over all immunity ,
who are at low risk for heart disease and who enjoy longevity have high
populations of Akkermansia inside them.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants
One more hero in the good army within is Bacillus Indicus.
It is a first class carotenoid producer, meaning it takes your food and turns
it into powerful antioxidants like anthocyanins, Luteins, alpha and beta
carotein and Astaxanthin.
What’s good about antioxidants? In the gut , having high levels of Anti-Oxidants there will help us deal with ageing, inflammatory bowel disorders, bowel and other cancers, mental illness, all of which result from oxidative stress. The "apple" or natural version of these carotenoids is created by Bacillus Indicus. It is 10 X more powerful in terms of its antioxidant capability than the antioxidants available in shops. The apple version as opposed to synthetic versions of carotenoids is fat soluble and water soluble, which improves absorption by the body. We were told to eat our veges for vitamin A, but in fact humans are not good at extracting carotenoids from foods….we can eat a ton of carrots but get very little carotenoids from them. However if we have the B Indicus at work within us, we have an antioxidant factory creating potent and bioavailable antioxidants every day. This is natures hard core antioxidant. It was discovered after looking at pink animals: pink Salmon, flamingos, krill and prawns obtain their eye-catching coloration either by eating shrimp (which feed on astaxanthin-rich algae, or eating the algae directly. However they all turned out to have the Bacillus Indicus in their gut as well, which produce so much carotenoids that they are expressed on their skin as bands of orangey pink colour.
A bit more about the amazing Astaxanthin: Scientists say that astaxanthin benefits include anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and immune system-enhancing properties, and natural healers may advise it to improve vision, ease joint pain, enhance heart health and even minimize facial wrinkles! The outstanding antioxidant capacity of astaxanthin has been estimated by scientists to be 6,000 times more powerful than vitamin C, 800 times more powerful than the enzyme CoQ10, and 150 times more powerful than anthocyanins (the beneficial bluish-purple pigments found in blueberries). It enhances gap-junction channels and improves the vital ability of healthy cells to communicate with each other -an essential function in inhibiting cancer development.
Apoptosis is the programmed destruction of damaged or dysfunctional cells. However, cancer can elude this beneficial process – meaning that its cells can survive and multiply unaffected by apoptosis.Reinstating the mechanism for apoptosis is what we are after, and studies have shown that astaxanthin promotes apoptosis in both oral and liver cancer cells.
A whopping $5 million Euros worth of studies were conducted to discover the bacteria that produce disease- fighting, bioavailable, very potent antioxidants.
What’s good about antioxidants? In the gut , having high levels of Anti-Oxidants there will help us deal with ageing, inflammatory bowel disorders, bowel and other cancers, mental illness, all of which result from oxidative stress. The "apple" or natural version of these carotenoids is created by Bacillus Indicus. It is 10 X more powerful in terms of its antioxidant capability than the antioxidants available in shops. The apple version as opposed to synthetic versions of carotenoids is fat soluble and water soluble, which improves absorption by the body. We were told to eat our veges for vitamin A, but in fact humans are not good at extracting carotenoids from foods….we can eat a ton of carrots but get very little carotenoids from them. However if we have the B Indicus at work within us, we have an antioxidant factory creating potent and bioavailable antioxidants every day. This is natures hard core antioxidant. It was discovered after looking at pink animals: pink Salmon, flamingos, krill and prawns obtain their eye-catching coloration either by eating shrimp (which feed on astaxanthin-rich algae, or eating the algae directly. However they all turned out to have the Bacillus Indicus in their gut as well, which produce so much carotenoids that they are expressed on their skin as bands of orangey pink colour.
Researchers say Astaxanthin induces the death of malignant cancer cells.
Apoptosis is the programmed destruction of damaged or dysfunctional cells. However, cancer can elude this beneficial process – meaning that its cells can survive and multiply unaffected by apoptosis.Reinstating the mechanism for apoptosis is what we are after, and studies have shown that astaxanthin promotes apoptosis in both oral and liver cancer cells.
As Jeffery Smith points out, the number 1 reported improvement or reversal of disease when switching to an organic diet is that digestive health improves. Specific negative impacts of GMOS and Round Up seems to be gut dysbiosis. With the help of star bacilli the dysbiosis may be able to be reversed.
Mitochondrial health and
the ageing process
Aging is driven by Oxidative Stress. Pathologists looked at cells
of a 90 years old and of a 5 year old and
asked “what is the difference between these individuals?” In the 90 year old,
95% of their mitochondria were dysfunctional. When energy (ATP) is produced from glucose and fatty acids in
the mitochondria within each of our cells, a
byproduct is the formation of “super oxides” . These are like heat to your
car engine. They have to be quenched by antioxidants , which are like the oil
in your engine. If the oil is not there, the engine will be destroyed by heat.
If anti oxidants are not in the cell, the mitochondrial “engine” may be
damaged. Glutathione, peroxidase, and other antioxidants produced by B indicus
reduce the damage to the mitochondria. Who knew products of the microbiome help
the mitochondria in all our cells? If we
are killing the engines of our cells, lethargy may lead on to dementia and vascular diseases such heart disease.
A study in Italy showed that Round Up ready soy beans fed to mice accelerated the aging process .
Amongst the 11 clinical trials being carried out on Kiran’s probiotic product
“ Just Thrive” there are studies on acne, gum disease, rheumatoid arthritis ,
diabetes, and more. The break down in the mucosal lining starts the damage to
so many systems in the body, as you can see by this seemingly unrelated list.
Thrive probiotic contains the 4 endospores of Bacillus we have looked at above.
I was very impressed with Kiran , he is a real bacteria
nerd. If I was going to buy a probiotic off anyone, it would be him. He is
showing with study after study that by using these keystone species we can
recover from exposure to Round Up. He gives the credit to Nature and says “we
are just smart enough to have respect for nature”. Such a different attitude to
the Biotech scientists who operate under false assumptions and in ignorance
whilst thinking all the while they are clever.
Im guessing you are a bit of a nerd to have made it through this
article. Kiran will be publishing studies on the effects of Round Up on the
microbiome very soon, and I will be ringside when he announces results. I will pass the findings on to
you. Thanks Jeffery Smith, thank you Kiran Krishnan. Please email me for how to
order "Just Thrive" at a special discount. We can share the freight.
