NeuroTalk Support Groups - Bacterial Dysbiosis

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- Gluten Sensitivity / Celiac Disease (https://www.neurotalk.org/gluten-sensitivity-celiac-disease/)

- - Bacterial Dysbiosis (https://www.neurotalk.org/gluten-sensitivity-celiac-disease/3914-bacterial-dysbiosis.html)

Bacterial Dysbiosis

I thought I would post this on a separate thread to discuss this condition that can occur with celiac disease and lead to leaky gut syndrome.

I just got my latest test results in. I have bacterial dysbiosis. Here's what my tests from Diagnos-Techs lab showed:

Pathogens/Bacterial Overgrowth Detected: :(
Klebsiella/Enterobacter/Serratia Group - moderate
Alpha Hemolytic Streptococcus - moderate

Total Intestinal SIgA (Stool) <69 (normal is 400-880) :eek:

The bad news is that my immune system has been fighting this for a long time. The good news is that I had NO Candida :)

I guess it could have been worse. Now, I'll be taking Chinese herbs to deal with the dybiosis. Does anyone else know much about treating dybiosis? I really don't want to go back to SCD. While it may have been starving the bad bugs, it was also starving me!

I also did something really bad this weekend. I ate a box of Pamela's double chocolate chip cookies (only 9 cookies in one sitting on an empty stomach :o ). I power booted them 4 hours later, and I'm not talking about my computer. I really felt ill. I guess it's the best thing I could have done was to process those out of my system as fast as I could! I'm kind of glad it happened, because I won't be tempted to eat them again for a very long time! Too much of a GF thing is not good for you. Could have been the soy in the chocolate too.

Claire

P.S. Nancy - my acupunturist ordered the test. I think you need to have some kind of health care practitioner order it, but I did run across a post of someone who ordered their own CDSA from Genova labs (formerly Great Smokies). I'll include the link when I find it again.

Article: "Intestinal Parasites, Bacterial Dysbiosis & Leaky Gut", Excerpts from Leo Galland's book Power Healing (Random House, 1998)

Quote:

The human intestine maintains within its inner cavity a complex, crowded environment of food remnants and microbial organisms (called "the intestinal flora") from which the body derives nourishment and against which the body must be protected. The relationship between the human host and her army of microbes is described by the Greek word, symbiosis, which means "living together". When symbiosis benefits both parties, it is called mutualism. When symbiosis becomes harmful, it is called dysbiosis. The first line of protection against dysbiosis and intestinal toxicity is strict control of intestinal permeability, the ability of the gut to allow some substances to pass through its walls while denying access to others. The healthy gut selectively absorbs nutrients and seals out those components of the normal internal milieu which are most likely to cause harm, except for a small sampling which it uses to educate and strengthen its mechanisms of immunity and detoxification.

Bacteria form the largest segment of the intestinal flora. The number of bacteria in the large bowel (about a hundred trillion) exceeds the number of cells in the human body. Intestinal bacteria perform some useful functions, so that our relationship with them is normally one of mutual benefit. They synthesize half a dozen vitamins, supplementing those which are obtained from food. They convert dietary fibre--that part of food which humans cannot digest--into small fatty acids which nourish the cells of the large intestine. They degrade dietary toxins like methyl mercury making them less harmful to the body. They crowd out pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella, decreasing the risk of food poisoning. They stimulate the development of a vigorous immune response. Four-fifths of the body's immune system is located in the lining of the small intestine.

Bacteria are dangerous tenants, however, so that dysbiosis is a common problem. As powerful chemical factories, bacteria not only make vitamins and destroy toxins, but also destroy vitamins and make toxins. Bacterial enzymes can inactivate human digestive enzymes and convert human bile or components of food into chemicals which promote the development of cancer. Some by-products of bacterial enzyme activity, like ammonia, hinder normal brain function. When absorbed into the body, they must be removed by the liver. People whose livers fail this task, because of conditions like cirrhosis, develop progressive neurologic dysfunction resulting in coma and death. For them, the administration of antibiotics which slow the production of nerve toxins by intestinal bacteria can be life saving.

The immune reactions provoked by normal intestinal bacteria may be harmful rather than helpful. Inflammatory diseases of the bowel, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease (ileitis), and several types of arthritis have been linked to aberrant immune responses provoked by intestinal bacteria. Two types of aberrancy have been described. First, intestinal bacteria contain proteins which look to the immune system very much like human proteins; they confuse the immune system and may fool the body into attacking itself. Second, fragments of dead bacteria may leak into the wall of the intestine or into the blood stream due to a breakdown in the mechanisms which regulate intestinal permeability. Circulating through the body, bacterial debris is deposited in tissues such as joints, provoking an attack on those tissues by an immune system trying to remove the foreign material.

Claire

Ordering your own tests

If you would like to order your own tests without a doctor's order from Genova (Great Smokies) Lab, try this website:

http://www.crohns.net/page/C/CTGY/Diagnostic_Test

These are tests for parasites, bacterial dysbiosis, digestive enzymes, and intestinal permeability. There are a couple more I may have missed, but they are not tests for gluten sensitivity.

Claire

Here's another Leo Galland article on Leaky Gut Syndrome that also discusses bacterial dysbiosis. I've included an excerpt on using the intestinal permeability test to diagnose gluten sensitivity/celiac disease:

http://mdheal.org/leakygut.htm

Quote:

IF THE INITIAL FASTING MANNITOL ABSORPTION IS LOW, suspect malabsorption. This result has the same significance as an abnormal D-xylose absorption test. Look for evidence of celiac disease, intestinal parasites, ileitis, small bowel bacterial overgrowth and other disorders classically associated with intestinal malabsorption and treat appropriately. After eight weeks of therapy, repeat the lactulose/mannitol challenge. An improvement in mannitol excretion indicates a desirable increase in intestinal absorptive capacity. The lactulose/mannitol assay has been proposed as a sensitive screen for celiac disease and a sensitive test for dietary compliance. For gluten-sensitive patients, abnormal test results demonstrate exposure to gluten, even when no intestinal symptoms are present. Monitoring dietary compliance to gluten avoidance by testing small bowel permeability is especially helpful in following those patients for whom gluten enteropathy does not produce diarrhea but instead causes failure to thrive, schizophrenia or inflammatory arthritis.

Claire