Digging for Answers for The Common Root of Dysfunction

When the leaves of a plant start looking sick, wise gardeners will dig out the root to take a look. Even though it is buried in the soil, hidden from view, gardeners know they must go to the root to find where most plant diseases begin. It does not surprise them that it was far away from the root, on the leaves, that the first symptoms appeared. They know that for the leaves to be healthy, they must receive nutrients from the roots, where they are absorbed from the soil. I learned this as a kid, watching the gardeners in my own backyard.

As I looked for answers and solutions to my own health issues, my journey also changed me from Western-trained specialist to open-minded doctor. As I started studying other traditions of healing, one concept kept cropping up in many of them: health and disease start in the intestines. This concept, which initially I did not understand, held the key that unlocked the answer I was looking for. Hidden, just like roots, our intestines absorb nutrients from food, our soil. Intestinal health plays a huge role in whether we get well-nourished. Toxicity, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, nutrient depletion, mucus, acid­ity, serotonin production—all these loose pieces of the puzzle became connected in a multilevel matrix that answered my questions about how and why.

Most people underestimate the importance of intestinal health. Other organs, such as the heart (the “king of the organs”), tend to get center stage. Yet as I learned, information on this system proved to be the missing link between my irritable bowel syndrome and my depression.

The human gut is similar to the root of a plant: both are hidden, both absorb water and nutrients, and when sick, both can show symp­toms on organs far away, like the leaves and branches or the skin and hair. But hidden in this root is one of the most important systems for human life: a high-precision machine with abilities and functions that not only allow us to obtain the building blocks and chemicals that will make our bodies, but also detect who to trust in life. A machine so deli­cate, it needs a very specific set of conditions for balanced function. Nature is the designer of the machine and also provided the perfect conditions. When we departed from the ways of nature, the conditions for optimal gut function deteriorated. When the intestines are in dis­tress, nutrient deficiencies are likely. But also your intuition may suffer. Your “gut feelings” may get confused. Your seasonal allergies may come back with a vengeance. You may gain weight despite “not eating,” get depressed, or get constipated. You may start to react to foods that you never reacted to before. Every single organ or function in the body has a direct link to the intestines.

Toxicity often affects the gut before any other organ. The gut, as I refer to it here, is not a single organ. It is a system that performs impor­tant, diverse, and almost magical functions. A short description of the four major constituents of the gut system will help you understand how it can be the root of the problem for totally different diseases.

The Common Root of Dysfunction – The Intestinal Flora

The silent heroes of health, the beneficial bacteria that live in our intes­tines are so important that some healing traditions call them the “invis­ible organ.” They may live far out of sight, but they are essential to the maintenance of intestinal integrity. A healthy intestine contains about two pounds of helpful bacteria. Like our inner rain forest, the intes­tines host a thriving mass of tiny microorganisms. These guests occupy prime real estate, cozy within the folds of the intestinal mucosa, our first skin. The rent is high, and they pay it in hard labor. They help with digestion, enabling essential nutrients to be absorbed that otherwise would have not been able to cross the intestinal wall into the circula­tory system.

The depletion of healthy intestinal flora guarantees nutri­ent depletion and its consequence, system malfunction. They also pro­tect us from infections. They take up all the real estate on the intestinal walls so that other organisms, such as pathogenic flora (disease-causing bacteria), viruses, and parasites literally cannot get a foothold. From their prime location on the intestinal wall, the beneficial flora func­tions as the first filter for toxins, neutralizing about a quarter of them before they get inside the bloodstream. And their presence speeds up transit time of toxic waste in the colon (feces) so it doesn’t sit there too long, which would let toxins get reabsorbed into the bloodstream.

There are always a few bad or pathogenic bacteria in this mix— it’s inevitable. But modern living has altered this balance in almost everyone. Toxic chemicals, medications, and especially antibiotics— medicine designed specifically to kill “biota,” or tiny life-forms—wipe out the good flora over time. Alcohol and stress contribute. The patho­genic or disease-causing microbes, resistant to the chemical mix that killed the good ones, find a way to survive and take over, a situation called dysbiosis. Yeasts are one of the organisms that overgrow the first chance they get. They thrive on the sweet foods and dairy products we eat and expel their waste, a toxic emission that makes us bloated, gassy, and irritated. Dysbiosis affects everyone to some extent—even those who eat whole foods and take probiotics, because we are all exposed to toxicity.

Many studies show the importance of good intestinal flora for all aspects of health. Mothers who take probiotics give birth to children who don’t get sick and years later even do better in school. Athletes with healthy intestinal flora recover faster from injury. Meanwhile, tak­ing antibiotics as a kid correlates significantly with having all kinds of diseases later on. In the toxicity story, this is such an important player that to embark on detox without restoring the good bacteria and remov­ing the bad is almost pointless. Rebuilding, reinoculating, and restoring the intestinal flora will be an integral part of your Detoxification program.

Ironically, when I prescribe probiotics, other cardiologists look at me, puzzled. None of the hospitals I have worked in during my career had a useful stock of them, nor did I ever see them prescribed in other departments, although hospitals are arguably where they’re needed the most. Even gastroenterologists, those who specialize in diges­tive organs, are only now looking at probiotics as a way to help their patients. Barely a thought is given to the condition of the animal popu­lation of the “inner forest.”

New medical-grade probiotic brands are being developed by the pharmaceutical industry, targeted toward those with bloating, consti­pation, and irritable bowel syndrome. Even though it is a step in the right direction, the probiotics are still made and marketed by those with the same mind-set used with traditional drugs—as a magic-bullet cure to a complex problem. Their marketing suggests that damaged intestinal flora can be fixed with a probiotic product alone—no dietary changes or detox program is advised or even mentioned as helpful. This “one-stop shopping” approach is appealing, because it suggests we don’t have to sacrifice anything to regain health. But it’s counterpro­ductive. Only when you eliminate the foods that feed the pathogenic bacteria, use natural antimicrobial foods or supplements to scare them off, and provide live bacteria of the right strains and in the right num­ber can you truly rebuild the intestinal flora successfully. Taking a phar­maceutical probiotic while continuing to drink coffee and eat dough­nuts is like throwing a Tic Tac at a charging elephant.

The intestinal flora also helps with the in-house training of the body’s inner Department of Homeland Security. Because our intestinal first skin is the border with the most foreign visitors, which are all try­ing to get in, the immune system has built many military bases on the intestinal wall itself, with periscopes looking into the intestinal tube, where the good bacteria are fighting their battles and completing their work. The good bacteria, by teasing them, keep the guards alert enough to recognize any real threats, but not so much that they generate a state of alert, which would start recruiting all the services of the immune army all throughout the body. Around the intestinal tube, there are so many immune-system operation camps that all together they make up to 80 percent of the total immune system in the body. Gut-associated lymphatic tissue, or GALT, is the name it goes by. My prediction is that we will find many more functions performed by the GALT once researchers become interested.