The Beginnings
“Micro” participation in the “Macro” life of the biome (Episode 3)
Some “facts” about what the biome is
Author: Merticaru Dorin Nicolae
(Romanian version) (To the chapter’s content)
Hint: For “atmosphere” you can listen to the music of this clip while reading…
Let’s start with, a small form of conclusion (inferred in previous materials), represented by the fact that, a gene in our DNA can be completely overtaken by genes in our microbiome. And with that, I’ll describe an experiment from this microbiome project.
Right from their birth, a large number of laboratory mice have been isolated in sterile enclosures. Fed identically, bred identically.
Of course, these mice “benefited” from their own microbiome, that of their mother… Thus, some grew fatter, others thinner, easily identifying themselves by belonging to their mother, by the “transmitted” microbiome…
Well, at a certain point, gut microbes were collected from the fat ones and implanted into the lean ones… Yes, that’s right, the skinny mice started to gain weight, the fat mice started to lose weight… No relation to diet whatsoever identically administered later.
In relation to this phenomenon, findings show that the human microbiome, and not only that, extracts between 10 and 15% of the total calories in the diet, which are extracted almost exclusively from dietary fiber…
Or, a change in the “weight” of this consumption will obviously be found in the human symbiote through increases in adipose deposits, increases that depend, however, also on this factor…
From this point, studies quickly concluded that this microbiome helps in much more efficient digestion of nutrients from the same diet, thus obtaining more energy from the same food (qualitatively and quantitatively). And this “discovery” was experimentally confirmed in humans as well…
Moreover, it was found that mice with a “fattening” microbiome, even if they were fed artificial sweeteners, still gained weight and developed various forms of diabetes…
Thanks to this finding, the Firmicutes bacterial family was discovered in this microbiome “of fattening”, which “harvests” extra calories, against the background of a diet that exceeds the requirements of the body, of the human body, causing the appearance of obesity, diabetes (in such people, a massive presence of Firmicutes in the gut microbiome)…
Of course, the studies went further and it was found that the microbiome clearly affects the behavior of individuals, starting from eating behaviors (some showing an incentive to eat more, with a fattening effect, others eating “anything and everything” without this effect), others eating relatively “anorexically” but gaining weight or with difficulty maintaining a normal weight, ending with sexual behaviors, territoriality and possession, closeness between individuals and many, many others.
Experiments have shown that microbiome “transfer” (food and probiotic “administrations”) from a healthy person to an autistic person, for example, cured or promoted the cure of the person’s autistic symptoms…
Well, it’s not like that. The autistic person’s microbiome developed in “that” environment (parents, for example) and yet they ended up with “that” problem.
Yes, it is a matter of “transfer” of the microbiome from another person, external to the microbiome of the family “environment” and, above all, compatible with the existing microbiome.
Something like organ transplantation but without benefiting from what would be the “treatments” of “immune inhibitors” or “associated” with such compatibility.
So, anyway, here’s an additional reason to think about why we have to be careful with who we go with, because not only the good parts are “taken”, but also the bad parts…
As for this “transmissibility”, a big surprise, it was found that the transfer of microbiome elements from one species to another has the same effect (microbes from an obese human person in mice cause obesity in mice, without excluding the reverse effect )…
Thus, in the case of a Gates Foundation project, elements from the microbiome of obese people were implanted into the microbiome of children with Kwashiorkor (a “malicious”, profound form of malnutrition) and thus those children were cured, although this condition had no “cure” until then.
This gesture was prompted by the fact that transferring the microbiome from those children to the mice, caused a real weight loss in a very short period of time. The fact that drew the conclusion of the reverse transfer.
This was also the moment of the initiation of the “American Gut” project, in which more and more volunteers are participating, with the idea of creating a real map of the microbiome and thus initiating therapies at its level, through it. And, obviously, at this moment there is already such a map…
The next step was the cure of a severe form of diarrhea (C. Diff.), a form almost impossible to cure, up to that time, in a certain percentage of people.
They proceeded, simply, to populate the sick microbiome with elements from a healthy microbiome, without any kind of selection, segmentation, etc., and, surprise, the result appeared in just one day, the diarrhea disappearing, the person being quickly electrolyte balanced and discharged as healthy after only a few days.
Another major discovery is related to the person’s stress that “reports”/transmits to the microbiome.
Studies have determined that a stressed person has a high permeability of the intestines to the Intingens bacteria, i.e. the protective mucus layer loses its barrier capabilities, allowing the bacteria and/or their metabolic products to reach the muscle tissue and then into the blood, causing tissue irritability at the level of the nerve cell, resulting in the appearance of Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and other similar conditions.
Perhaps for this reason, there are more and more voices in medicine calling for Alzheimer’s disease to be called type 3 diabetes, since its essential cause seems to be a kind of dietary “filter” (like a metabolic “imbalance” ), newer “metabolic syndrome”, in clear correlation with the microbiome.
If I also detail the fact that medicine has discovered that high levels of insulin are determining factors in the evolution of this disease, one can clearly perceive the real nature of this “problem”…
Let’s also add that more and more voices in the medical world are calling for the triad of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes to be included in a single diagnosis, called metabolic syndrome?!?
Where such a “food filter” would already be both the cause of the problems and the main “pressure point” in healing/balancing the problems?!?
And, such signals come especially from the neurologists “in neuroscience” (30 neurologists from Scientific American — only for one of the studies we went through for the creation of this material), who put things “on chap”, publishing editorials stating that Alzheimer’s disease must be looked at from another point of view, in direct relation to the microbiome.
Diets that positively affect the microbiome have already appeared, represented by: eliminating refined carbohydrates and sugar, increasing the consumption of vegetables, and whole wheat (these being true prebiotics that accelerate the multiplication of “good” bacteria), eating fermented meals, eating high-quality protein (especially plant-based) and other…
Și corelații masive, dovezi ale acțiunilor microbiomului în ansamblul simbiotului uman se înmulțesc de la un studiu la altul…
For example, another detail that may seem “spicy” is represented by the fact that the microbiome needs rest, just like us.
I have already included some “details” about the impact of stress on the microbiome… So, sleep is also necessary for this important “part” of us.
Movement then ensures better oxygenation, better transit of nutrients, and adequate elimination of toxins, both for our body and the microbiome.
Other “considering” details that come from the world of medical science, and not only, are represented by the encouragements to love the microbiome (which represents 90% of who we are), to respect it, to take care of it by feeding it properly, by getting enough sleep, supporting it with exercise, and so it supports your health more than you might expect.
Something that becomes more and more easy to overlap with the “advice” about the proper functioning of the human body…
But where does this microbiome get so much power from?!?
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the discoveries certify that the first form of life, and the most successful, was bacteria (which exists and evolves even now)…
And, what is more important, the most numerous form, the most resistant and adaptable, surviving in the most extreme environments, as well as the longest-lived (the evolution of bacteria, “by some alone”, means almost 3.8–3.9 billion of years of Earth’s 4.6, compared to other life forms that “record” at most one-seventh of this duration)…
So, it is obvious that we, like any other living being on Earth, have evolved in a veritable microbial soup; moreover, we have co-evolved with the microbial environment (and the other fungal, viral, etc. components) and we “rely” on it, reaching the point where we can no longer function without this environment, which often provides us with elements that the human body is not able to produce or process.
Medicine, through its branch of microbiology, tells us quite different things… For example, most microbes are harmful… But why?!?
Well, this science has a correct view of it, but from a particularly “reductionist” point of view, downright traditionalist because it has as its object of study only a kind of pathogenic “mass” of microbes, the rest being “them over there” (for example, microbiologists analyze only the “pathogenic” species of Escherichia Coli, the others being “over there”).
Then, it “takes” microbes and extracts them from their living environment, “grows” them/multiplies them in culture media, in laboratories, and studies what they do without symbiosis with their “original” living environment, but with one artificial, of “culture”…
But are these culture media what would be necessary for the bacteria we are studying?!? As long as we don’t know exactly what they feed on, what symbiosis is useful for them, and many, many other details and we go by what has worked in other studies…
On a kind of average of the answers, on an arbitrary identification, on an evaluation that takes into account almost exclusively the “pathogen”…
Why, since ancient times, in traditional Chinese medicine, there was fecal microbial transplantation, embodied in mentions dating from the 5th century AD. about the yellow soup produced from the feces of a healthy person and consumed by the sick person (without him “knowing” what he “swallows”), especially “for gastrointestinal causes” but also, for example, for various infections which, at the top, were healing…
Another example, which comes from these days, is the treatment, through “colonoscopic delivery” of a “healthy” microbiome, possibly with capsules with fecal extract, with over 90% cure of Clostridium difficile infections, where classic treatments, for example with antibiotics, had a maximum efficiency of 30%, a rate of reduction of autism manifestations of more than 75% in less than a month of treatment, in the conditions of less than 10% success rate with classical treatments, without symptomatic return after cessation treatment, as is the case with classical treatment.
The same remarkable results have also appeared in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and in many gastro-enterological conditions, such as ulcerative colitis with a double success rate compared to the classic, current treatments…
But, there are also elements such as the lack of possibilities to treat Crohn’s disease with these techniques, which indicates that not only the simple “replenishment” of the microbiome is the solution.
And, obviously, this is only due to some kind of need for the balance of the microbiome with some kind of “global constituent” of it, that “something” that belongs to the evolutionary development of the “individual” human symbiotic organism.
Following what was presented, it is quite clear that scientists, many doctors who became aware of this “detail” of the human body, began to wonder and act to find the answer to the question: “How can we collaborate on these microorganisms that we don’t know exactly what they are, what they eat, what requirements they have and to effectively collaborate with them, turning them into “molecular tools”?!?… Or, questions on this topic…
And, the first problem these researchers ran into was identifying the bacteria that make up our microbiome… Do you think that was easy?!? I’ll give you the answer: They haven’t succeeded either so far…
And finally, this material was “developed” and published by me on various “mediums” 10 years ago. Now I’m publishing it on “Medium” too, just adapting the formatting, small “shape” and “updating” tweaks, and inserting graphics and “atmosphere” elements.
I think it’s a pretty important detail…
Peace, love, understanding, and gratitude!
Merticaru Dorin Nicolae
This is part of an upcoming book I’ve chosen to develop here on Medium: “The Beginnings”. If you like the result of my work, to support future efforts, you can subscribe to my email notifications via Medium. Thank you!
From my work here you can also access the works “New (Old) Paradigm of New Medicine” as well as “Mortgage One’s Soul”. Thank you!
