A growing body of research, however, has firmly established that you may be able to restore the good bugs by taking probiotic supplements or eating fermented foods (like sauerkraut) in between your doses of antibiotics. They’re particularly helpful for alleviating diarrhea caused by antibiotics.

“We found a clear beneficial effect of probiotics in preventing or treating antibiotic-associated diarrhea,” says Sydney J. Newberry, a nutritional scientist and a researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

In Newberry’s research, use of probiotics was associated with a 42 percent lower risk of developing diarrhea when taking antibiotics as compared to not using probiotics. Experts advise taking probiotics supplements a few hours after taking antibiotics so that the medicine doesn’t kill the helpful organisms in the supplements.

“Research has shown that children with ASD commonly have GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms,” says Christine Pennesi, medical student at Penn State College of Medicine. “Notably, a greater proportion of our study population reported GI and allergy symptoms than what is seen in (most children). Some experts have suggested that gluten- and casein (dairy)-derived peptides (linked amino acids) cause an immune response in children with ASD, and others have proposed that the peptides could trigger GI symptoms and behavioral problems.”

In the surveys, parents who restricted their children’s diets found that the kids had fewer intestinal problems, better social behavior, better language, improved eye contact, engagement and longer attention spans. The study appears in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.

In this study, researchers examined people who had had all or part of their colons removed. They discovered that chewing gum seemed to stimulate nerves in the digestive system, triggered the release of gastrointestinal hormones and increased the production of saliva and secretions from the pancreas.

In a report published in the journal Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology doctors report that tongue discomfort can be a sign of gluten issues.

You can also suspect you are sensitive to gluten if the enamel on your teeth is pitted or rough. In many cases, gluten interferes with proper tooth formation.

Gluten Revolution

As the gluten-free revolution has picked up momentum, more people are discovering that gluten sensitivity, including celiac disease (an autoimmune disease caused by reaction to gluten), lurks behind their problematic health symptoms. But how do you know for sure if you suffer from negative reactions to gluten? One possible way to test whether your health complaints are in fact due to gluten is to remove all gluten-containing foods from your diet and monitor the progress of your symptoms. If they clear up, you may have your answer. If your health doesn’t improve after a gluten-free period, your symptoms may nonetheless still stem from gluten reaction, but as part of a more complex picture of your health.

Sorting Through Gluten’s Damage

Nearly every person has some level of gluten sensitivity, and the digestive discomfort associated with gluten reaction may be only one part of the puzzle. You may find through proper medical testing that your symptoms are due to other food sensitivities, parasites, abnormal bacterial overgrowth, and neurological or emotional triggers. In addition, many people who are gluten-sensitive do not experience digestive symptoms, instead developing neurological or immune symptoms. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is rich with neurological, hormonal and immune system components, so damage to the GI tract because of gluten reactions can have major impacts throughout your body.

False Negative Test Results

Blood testing and allergen testing can determine whether you have a minor gluten intolerance or celiac disease, which damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents certain nutrients from being absorbed. However, the gluten-sensitivity blood tests that have been available for years can frequently and misleadingly show a negative result, even in the presence of a moderate to severe gluten sensitivity. In my clinic, we use saliva and/or stool testing, which looks for an immune reaction directly at the level of contact between your gut lining and gluten-containing foods. This type of testing often gives a more accurate reading as to the level of gluten-sensitivity.

No test is foolproof, and even the newer gluten-sensitivity tests can give you a false negative reading if the immune system within your GI tract is not functioning properly. Digestive-immune impairment often happens after years of eating foods that you are sensitive to, as well from chronic inflammation caused by a variety of conditions. Even with these limitations, the saliva or stool tests are the most accurate we’ve found to date. One stool test that is available online can be found at Enterolab.com, and a saliva test kit can be purchased at Unikeyhealth.com without a doctor’s order.

Alternate Test For Celiac Disease

If you do have gluten-sensitivity, how do you know if it is mild or severe, or if you actually have celiac disease? With severe gluten reactions, continued gluten exposure can damage the lining of your small intestine, reducing the surface area for nutrient absorption and creating a host of related complications. In the past, more in-depth testing for celiac disease was typically performed by taking a sample (biopsy) of the small intestine during an invasive procedure in which a scope is passed down into the small intestine. This test helped to analyze the level of damage to the intestinal lining. Alternately, Enterolab has developed a stool test measuring fat in the stool. If the fat level is abnormally high, this indicates that fat is not being absorbed and is an indirect measure of intestinal damage.

Choosing Gluten-Free Alternatives

Because there is no straightforward test to distinguish between people that are highly sensitive and those who are mildly sensitive, complete avoidance of gluten-containing foods is the universal recommendation to heal gluten problems. However, gluten is often hidden in foods or not obviously listed in the ingredients, so you need to become a careful label reader to keep gluten out of your meals.

If a product is labeled as “wheat free,” it may not be gluten-free. To be safe, the label must be explicitly labeled as “gluten-free.” In addition, many other types of foods, such as nuts or beans are packaged in the same plant as gluten-containing foods, which can contribute to cross-contamination and induce allergies. Thanks to the growing demand for gluten-free foods, many manufacturers now are clearly labeling their products for gluten-free consumers.

Our knowledge of gluten sensitivity and its many complications is constantly evolving as the gluten-free movement gains a significant foothold within conventional and integrative medicine. The avoidance of gluten has restored the health of millions of people — sometimes quickly and at other times more gradually. If you feel you have issues with gluten, remember to always follow your gut and get appropriate testing to increase awareness of your own personal health and wellness.

The presentation featured findings from four studies examining the effects of the healthful microorganisms on antibiotic-induced diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome. Additionally, the research delved further into how probiotics can alleviate abdominal bloating and discomfort.

Scientists reported that no significant difference in symptoms was observed between patients taking probiotics for abdominal issues not relating to irritable bowel syndrome and a control group.

However, patients with diarrhea, colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome were all shown to benefit from probiotic treatment, suggesting that altering gut microorganisms can have a significant effect on inflammatory conditions.

"This anti-inflammatory effect is not restricted to a specific disease state, suggesting that [the probiotic] B.infantis induces a critical cellular response, which may include the induction of regulatory cell subsets," said Eamonn M.M. Quigley, M.D., FACG, who presented the findings.

Authors of the study noted that probiotic bacteria can be found in yogurt, soy products, fermented dairy drinks, tempeh and natural nutritional supplements.
 

Some of the most common digestive issues are simply messages that your colon needs more friendly bacteria — beneficial microbes known as probiotics that inhabit the intestinal tract. If you continually burp or belch, are troubled by constipation or diarrhea or bloat after eating, the root of your difficulties may be an imbalance of bacteria in the intestines.

You see, life in the intestinal interior is a microscopic population balancing act teetering between colonies of friendly health-enhancing bacteria that produce vitamins and boost immunity and detrimental invasive pathogens that can inflame the body and cause illness. The friendly, probiotic bacteria also help you absorb nutrients and keep the pathogens in check.  When they decline, you can’t properly digest food and eliminate waste. As a result, you are more susceptible to emitting embarrassing digestive noises. You also may be more likely to fall victim to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and parasites.

Bad Bacteria

Several factors can help the bad bacteria grow: Eating processed foods and sugary snacks encourages their spread. Aging can also make you more susceptible to their advances. In addition, taking drugs like antibiotics can kill off the friendly microorganisms and allow the mischievous microbes to navigate to problematic parts of the alimentary canal.

You can replenish your probiotics with supplements and by eating fermented foods like yogurt, miso, tempeh, sauerkraut, pickles and some cheeses. But it’s especially important to take probiotics before, during and after a round of antibiotics. Just don’t take the supplements at the same time as the antibiotics and take your supplements with food.

Research shows that taking probiotic supplements can:

• Help control diarrhea.
• Lower the risk of vaginal yeast infections and urinary tract infections.
• Reduce incidences of IBS.
• Ease inflammation after colon surgery.
• Stop eczema in children.

Drink To Your Health

If you’re looking for another simple intervention for intestinal inconveniences, look no further than water, an amazing “colon juice” that practically guarantees healthy and regular bowel elimination. You need water for just about every bodily function and that includes digestion and elimination.

“We have an increased need for water because our diets contain mostly processed, low-water-content food, and our bodies need the extra to help flush out all the toxins we’re taking in,” says Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald in The Detox Solution.

If you sip (No guzzling!) pure water throughout your day you increase your body’s ability to efficiently absorb it and use it in “diluting toxins and waste products and escorting them out of the body” while “protecting the internal surfaces of your digestive tract and other systems,” Fitzgerald observes.

Experts say you should drink about six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Some feel that nine glasses are even more beneficial.

Like most natural, preventive-health solutions, taking probiotics and drinking more water don’t cure acute illness, they support your body’s efforts to detox itself and stay well. These simple techniques aren’t high-tech or glitzy, but by keeping your friendly intestinal bacteria at full strength and your water supply free-flowing you significantly boost your chances of keeping disease at bay.

The pancreas makes insulin, a hormone that controls how your body uses and stores sugar. Excess sugar is stored by the body in the liver and muscles as glycogen. But if the glycogen is not used for energy needs, it is soon converted to body fat.

When your blood sugar levels stay high and the pancreas churns out insulin at a furious pace, your body runs the serious risk of creating the fixed fat deposits that make you obese. This buildup of body fat may take place before or after metabolic abnormalities arise that lead to type 2 diabetes or leave you mired in the more common condition known as metabolic syndrome.

How do these changes take place? Well, one way is when insulin cannot effectively function at the cell membrane receptors and glucose (blood sugar) cannot be brought into cells, a situation known as insulin resistance. At the same time, the pancreas may be overproducing insulin to compensate for this resistance.  

All this is a function of what you eat and how rapidly you eat. For example, eating foods high in refined sugar causes insulin to surge in order to allow sugar to enter the cells that need it. However, this repeated pattern of constantly eating refined sugar encourages oversecretion of insulin chronically to the point that cells become more likely to resist its influence. If you think you have this problem, consider having a fasting blood sugar or a hemoglobin A1C test which determines blood sugar balance over the previous three months and provides a great deal of information about your insulin function.  

Enzyme Factory

Remember that the pancreas also makes enzymes to digest your food and that obesity results from faulty digestion and overeating foods low in micronutrients. But the good news is that if you improve digestion, eat a nutritious diet and reduce stress, you can reduce inflammation in your body and lose weight. With real nutrition (not fast food or processed snacks), you can slowly reverse the metabolic dysregulation that leads to extra pounds.

At the same time, digestion plays a key role in preserving your overall health. Consequently, when you take digestive enzyme supplements to enhance digestion and boost the absorption of nutrients, you benefit every organ in your body. Constipation, bloating and cramping are all signs of digestion abnormalities that need to be addressed.

Here are some supplements to assist with digestion and assimilation:

• Digestive enzymes (plant source): Take with meals.
• Betaine HCL (natural stomach acid for digestion): Take with meals.
• Cascara sagrada or senna: Only take these for a maximum of 10 days at a time to get the GI tract moving. Then rest the bowels for several days before using again.
• Garcinia cambogia: Use this to block sugar absorption.
• Bitter herbs: Take at the beginning of meals to stimulate digestion. 
• L-glutamine: Take 1000 milligrams 30 minutes before meals to reduce insulin and enhance glucose utilization. This also aids in healing the small intestine’s lining.
• Gymnema sylvestre: Use this to block sweet receptors on the tongue. 

The pancreas works hard every day to cope with its duties in controlling blood sugar. When you eat nutrient-rich foods (eat plenty of fruits and vegetables) and avoid overeating processed foods, you support this crucial organ. And that supports a healthier, slimmer you.

To your best health,

Michael Cutler, M.D.
Author, Easy Health Digest